'A CHEAP FORM OF PUBLICITY'

Re: The Prince Of Pot Replies, letter to the editor, Aug. 29.

Marc Emery's defence of the use of Nazi imagery to illustrate the status of
cannabis users does little to satisfy. His illogic can only lead readers to
conclude that his decision to employ this tactic is designed more to
sensationalize than to educate.

Mr. Emery defends his use of the analogy by offering a misleading
definition: "A Nazi is a person who inflicts pain, punishment,
incarceration or death on any human who is behaving peacefully and honestly."

While the Nazis did these things, the definition equally fits many forms of
tyranny. The Nazis were the practitioners of a murderous ideology that
aimed to create a new world order through the elimination of millions of
individuals who were deemed to be unworthy of life. Nazism was an ideology
of blood and death that, in the end, left nothing behind but blood and
death. To call someone a Nazi is to link them explicitly to the practice of
genocide.

Mr. Emery is not a stupid man. He knows all this. Therefore the only
reasons he can have for engaging in such an egregious act of concept
stealing is to gain notoriety for his cause. It is a cheap form of
publicity that diminishes not only Mr. Emery but also those individuals who
wish to influence the system to change the current laws regarding the use
of cannabis.

Len Rudner, national director of community relations,

Canadian Jewish Congress, Toronto