Buzzby

A U.S. View: An Open Letter To Irwin Cotler
Keith Gottschalk | rabble.ca | 08/09/2005

Dear Justice Minister Cotler:

On July 29, acting solely at the behest of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the RCMP arrested a Canadian citizen and leader of the Marijuana Party, Marc Emery, and two other people.

What made this action stunning was that your authorities were acting solely for the benefit of U.S. law enforcement agents, against a citizen of your own country.

Emery's “crime” was carried out for 10 years under the watchful eye of Canadian authorities. His crime was making available seeds that nature produces on its own to people who would cultivate and use them in the same way responsible adults use alcohol and tobacco products.

On the day after the arrest, The Globe and Mail reported:

Assistant U.S. attorney Jeff Sullivan said there is no chance of marijuana being legalized in the United States. “Marijuana is not a benign drug. There are more kids in treatment for addiction to marijuana than for all other illegal drugs combined,” Mr. Sullivan claimed.

The fact that reputable people in the U.S. can still spout this nonsense without anyone in the media calling them on it is striking. Sullivan neither cites any source nor does he care to compare the addiction rates and harm from marijuana to those of legal alcohol and tobacco in the U.S.

A report authorized by the Canadian Senate in 2002 counters the views of Sullivan and other U.S. drug warriors. The best science also does. But science, unfortunately, no longer holds much sway in the U.S. Canada has been considering liberalization of marijuana laws, which the U.S. did not want. Is Emery's arrest a reaction to U.S. pressure?

You might remember U.S. Drug Policy Czar John Walters harangue of Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen in 2002, threatening border-crossing restrictions if that city adopted a more humane drug policy. That was the year the U.S. DEA started operating in Vancouver.

And in fact, this incident seems less a concern for law enforcement than for the U.S. government's fanatic zeal in prosecuting those who use recreational drugs. Kim Tandy, Chief of the U.S. DEA issued this statement in regard to Emery's arrest:

“Today's arrest of Mark (sic) Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement.”

This shows that this selective and malicious prosecution is aimed squarely at those who are working within government channels (as Mr. Emery was) to legalize marijuana on both sides of our border

Tandy went on to make a completely unsubstantiated allegation:

“Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly found no one in Seattle's Hempfest organization or marijuana community who could remember getting one dime from Marc Emery.

Emery did, on the CBC Radio Show As It Happens, claim he gave $380,000 in taxes to the BC and Canadian governments, clearly marked on his income tax return from the sales of his product. The Canadian government knew precisely what he was doing. Apparently, so did the DEA office in Vancouver.

So it seems that Ms. Tandy and the U.S. government is not merely content to quash legitimate pro-marijuana movements in the U.S. but feels it can move against the Marijuana Party in Canada as well.

Now you may rightly ask: why does an American care about Marc Emery or Canadian sovereignty? Simply put, this is an issue of human decency, in which Canada can again set the example for the world.

By passing a Federal law allowing same-sex marriage, Canada recently joined three other nations in setting an example for the U.S. and the world of how the rule of law should stand for respect, tolerance and human freedom.

The spillover of our insane War on Drugs into your sovereign jurisdiction is merely one manifestation of a growing movement by the U.S. government from Jeffersonian democracy to an authoritarianism that recognizes no other nation's wishes for its own people, save what is delineated by the Bush administration.

What I also believe to be true, sadly, is that increasingly much of the world is starting to question whether the United States is the “shining beacon” of freedom and liberty throughout the world.

In fact, in light of current events both in the U.S. and the Middle East, I would politely venture to say that it is Canada which is increasingly being looked toward to set the example in peacekeeping, respect for diversity, and temperance in foreign policy. You have an opportunity to strike another blow for freedom by preventing the show trial of Mr. Emery, and instead, giving him his due process in his own country.

As a U.S. citizen I would be ashamed to have Mr. Emery, a Canadian citizen and politician, tried in the United States. It would be a grotesque violation of human decency and the right of people to be tried in their own nations for breaking their own nation's laws.

Extraditing Emery to the U.S. will only embolden the U.S. DEA and other U.S. law enforcement agencies to continue to exploit what are often, in actuality, unilateral “mutual cooperation” treaties with other countries, and bring foreign nationals forcibly into the U.S. to serve draconian sentences for drug and other crimes that are handled quite differently where they live.

Marc Emery faces 10 years to life in a U.S. prison for selling marijuana seeds. That is obscene. Both our people deserve better than these heavy-handed tactics against otherwise peaceful people. I ask you to take a principled stand against this abuse of the rule of law.

Thank you for your consideration.
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Keith Gottschalk writes for a daily publication in the Midwest U.S. and was formerly a radio talk show host in Illinois. He frequents babble as the Américain Égalitaire.

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