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Marijuana Party Launches Lawsuit
The pot party is taking Surrey School Board to court
Sheila Reynolds | Peace Arch News | 05/20/2005

The B.C. Marijuana Party is suing the board for barring its candidates from participating in high school all-candidate meetings.

"We feel the targeted exclusion of the B.C. Marijuana Party is anti-democratic. We think it sends a bad message to students and we think it violates the Charter (of Rights)," campaign manager Kirk Tousaw said.

The suit was filed in B.C. Supreme Court May 13.

In light of the litigation, the district would not comment, but Doug Strachan said two weeks ago Marijuana Party candidates were initially allowed to attend school debates, but had to be excluded after a candidate distributed material promoting pot use after a meeting at Fraser Heights Secondary.

While acknowledging the importance of various parties and diverse views, Strachan said the district "can't condone the promotion of them (students) taking an illegal substance."

Tousaw said the party will seek direction, either from legislature, Elections B.C. or the courts, as to what process should determine who can participate in all-candidates' debates.

In the televised leadership debate, for example, there was some contention around who was invited. The Democratic Reform Party argued it should be included because it has a member in the legislature, while BCMP also thought it should be included because it ran candidates in 79 ridings last election and landed 3.4 per cent of the popular vote.

"There probably can't be anything that has force of law," Tousaw said, "but there ought to be some kind of advisory guidelines out there that have some sort of provision for getting more voices heard.

"In a democracy it's...important to hear different opinions."

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