A SOVEREIGNTY ISSUE?

Most Canadians want their government to reject efforts by U.S.
authorities to have marijuana-seed seller Marc Emery extradited for a
crime that is not prosecuted in Canada, a new poll found.

The poll conducted by The Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail
and CTV found that 58 per cent of Canadians oppose the extradition of
Mr. Emery.

The results suggest that Canadians do not view the Emery case as a
simple matter of surrendering a criminal to the United States. "It
has become almost a sovereignty issue," said Allan Gregg, chairman of
The Strategic Counsel.

He noted that another section of the same poll showed that Canadians
favour giving the U.S. any information it wants about Canadians
suspected of terrorism, but do not want to surrender someone accused
of breaking the law by selling illegal substances in the U.S.

In Canada, selling marijuana seeds is technically illegal, but no
case has been prosecuted for decades. In the United States, the
maximum sentence Mr. Emery faces is life in prison.

Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler must approve his extradition to
the United States.

In fact, marijuana-legalization advocates say that support for the
British Columbia defendant has been gathering, because many Canadians
view it as a question of asserting Canada's right to choose how laws
are enforced within its own borders.

The poll has a sample size of 1,000 and is considered to have a
margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.