EMERY PORTRAYED AS 'PERVERSE MARTYR'

Editor:

Thank you for lending a voice of reason in this obnoxious debate over the
arrest of Marc Emery.Other news organizations have blindly embraced and
stoked the hostility towards U.S. authorities expressed by Emery's
degenerate flock of supporters, characterizing him as some perverse martyr.

The argument that there has been an encroachment of Canadian sovereignty is
utterly vacuous.If Canada is to successfully combat social evils like drug
trafficking then it is imperative that our police forces work with their
counterparts abroad.Vancouver police were acting on behalf of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration pursuant to a law passed by our sovereign and
democratically-elected Parliament.

Emery will not be subjected to torture or racial persecution if extradited;
he will face justice in a country whose citizens enjoy the same rights and
immunities as Canadians.

But this means nothing to Emery's apologists who would prefer that the
justice minister be selective in extraditing Canadian citizens. As Canada
continues to be passive in the war on drugs, we can only pray that more
Canadian drug lords will run afoul of the U.S. and face a more ruthless and
efficient dispenser of punishment than the mockery that is Canadian justice.

Steven Austin

Ladner