HE'S NO STRANGER TO TROUBLE

B.C.'s Prince of Pot Marc Emery should be used to being read his
rights by now.

An Elections Canada official advised Emery on Monday he may be charged
for failing to register as a third-party participant in the 2004
federal election campaign.

And while he said he hopes the potential fines aren't too big, Emery
may have much bigger things to worry about.

Under the Elections Canada Act, he could face up to three months in
jail and a $1,000 fine, but Emery is due back in B.C. Supreme Court
next month to set a date for his extradition hearing on drug charges
in the U.S. and this most recent offense could mean having his bail
revoked.

"Hopefully, because I did it in 2004, it wouldn't have an impact on
(the bail conditions), although it's hard to say. When you're on bail
you have to be on good character, which means you can't break the
law," he said yesterday.

However, his lawyer Kirk Tousaw told 24 hours yesterday it's unlikely
Emery has violated any of his current bail conditions.

"Even if Marc were charged with offences arising out of the 2004
campaign, all of his action or inaction would have occurred prior to
being put on bail, and those cannot be held to be violating bail
conditions," Tousaw said.

He's also hoping the situation will be cleared up without
charges

Emery, who said he "clearly, though unwittingly" broke the law during
the 2004 election campaign, said he was under the impression that
since the Marijuana Party was itself a registered party, he was free
to "pursue the reason we exist, 365 days of the year without special
permit."

As far as printing 80,000 NDP/Jack Layton cards worth $6,500 plus
giving $4,000 from POT-TV and $2,500 from Emery personally to the NDP,
"those are things we're always doing anyways so it wouldn't have
occurred to us (to register)," Emery said.

Emery is continuing his NDP card and poster campaign for the current
election, but still has time to register as a third party with
Elections Canada if spending exceeds the $5,000 limit.