'PRINCE OF POT' UNDER FIRE

Web Journal Posting Calls Justice Minister A 'Nazi-Jew'

OTTAWA -- Marijuana crusader Marc Emery was under fire this week as
web-loggers scrutinize the content of his websites, including a posting
from his "jail blog" last summer that called federal Justice Minister Irwin
Cotler a "Nazi-Jew."

With the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after him, the case of B.C.'s
"Prince of Pot," has become a cause celebre. Since his arrest a month ago,
Emery faces possible extradition to the United States for selling marijuana
seeds to U.S. customers.

Supporters of Emery, who calls himself "the leader of the marijuana people
around the world," include federal NDP leader Jack Layton, who has argued
against the extradition.

Emery, 47, was serving a three-month sentence in Saskatoon last summer for
passing a joint at a marijuana rally when he wrote the "jail blog," which
he dictated to associates over the phone. It was then posted on the Internet.

In it, he complained that Cotler went from being a human rights advocate to
a justice minister who, as attorney general, allows for the prosecution of
cannabis users.

"I thought the term Jewish-Nazi, or Nazi-Jew, was an oxymoron until Cotler
became the Injustice Minister," Emery's posting said. "What a disgrace he
is to his Jewish roots. He should -- so much -- know better." In June, the
content on Emery's main website -- cannabisculture.com, which he edits,
publishes and uses to help sell millions of dollars' worth of marijuana
seeds -- prompted NDP House leader Libby Davies to write to one of Emery's
employees, Chris Bennett.

"I have been extremely disturbed by the tone and characterization of the
Minister of Justice, Mr. Cotler, as a Nazi Jew and the Gestapo," wrote Davies.

She found "the anti-Semitic characterization of Mr. Cotler based on his
religious beliefs to be very offensive and completely counterproductive."

Four days after Davies' letter was posted to the site, Emery -- temporarily
taking a view that the Nazi metaphor "disengages almost everyone" -- wrote
he had a better word for Cotler: "capo."

"If you're going to make comparisons," he advised, "the term for Irwin
Cotler might be 'capo.' These were the Jews during the Holocaust who were
fated to deliver their fellow Jews to their death..."

In this case, Cotler would deliver his fellow Canadians to his American
"masters," Emery suggests. Earlier this month, a doctored picture of Cotler
in a Nazi uniform, with a caption calling him a "neocon-kapo," was removed
by one of the site's administrators after it had been posted by a
discussion-group participant. Several weblogs, including
smalldeadanimals.com, later drew attention to that posting and to Emery's
"capo" comment.

In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Emery said he was in a very
emotional state when he first used the term "Nazi-Jew."

"When you're in jail, you can be seized by despair."

Yet, while he did not wish to be "insulting" to Cotler, Emery said he
believes the Nazi metaphor is fair.

"To me, a Nazi is a person who would inflict pain, punishment,
incarceration or death on anyone who's acting peacefully and honestly," he
said.

Emery said it is his respect and admiration for Jewish people that is
behind his belief that Cotler should be held to a higher standard.

Cotler declined to be interviewed. A spokesperson said the minister did not
wish to risk prejudicing Emery's extradition case.

David Matas, chief legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada, said it
trivializes the atrocities of the Holocaust "to call everything that
happens in this world with which you disagree 'Nazism.' "