POT PLANTS FOUND NEAR MARTIN'S COUNTRY HOME

OTTAWA-- The National Capital Commission is "defiling the memory of the
father of Gatineau Park" by failing to stop marijuana cultivation near the
prime minister's Harrington Lake residence, a park activist says.

Chelsea resident Jean-Paul Murray, a Senate speech-writer, said yesterday
he stumbled upon about 60 marijuana plants last week during a country walk.

The plants are close to Meech Lake Road used by Prime Minister Paul Martin
and thousands of other visitors to the park.

Murray said the plants are in a valley once owned by Roderick Percy Sparks
who he said played a far more influential role in founding Gatineau Park
than Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King who is still regarded as
the park's founder.

He complained to NCC officials on Saturday after he found the marijuana,
bags of fertilizer, watering cans and empty bags of a soil mixture for
starting seedlings. The carefully tended plants were still there yesterday.

NCC spokeswoman Marie Letourneau said marijuana grow operations were
discovered in the park in July and the matter has been turned over to the
police.