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Marc Emery: Extradited
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Gamos replied on Fri May 21, 2010 @ 7:27pm |
 Coolness: 93525 | After a long legal battle Prime Minister Harper and the US DEA finally got its wish, extraditing pot activist Marc Emery to serve 5 years in US prison for selling marijuana seeds from Canada to the USA via mail order. In what amounts to the greatest attack to Canadian Sovereignty in the recent past, this crime would have likely never have been prosecuted in Canada.
via the BBC Canada 'marijuana seed dealer' extradited to US A supporter hugs Marc Emery Marc Emery's supporters have protested against his extradition Canada's so-called "Prince of Pot" has been brought to the US where he is expected to plead guilty to selling marijuana seeds to US customers. Marc Emery allegedly sold millions of marijuana seeds around the world by post. He was ordered extradited by Canada's Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson on 10 May. Mr Emery arrived in Seattle, Washington state, on Thursday and is expected to plead guilty on Monday. Richard Troberman, Mr Emery's attorney, told the Associated Press news agency that his client would plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana in exchange for an agreed sentence of five years in prison. Mr Emery, a resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, said he had made $3m (£2.4m) a year before his arrest in 2005. His seeds were allegedly traced to illegal cannabis-growing operations in Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and North Dakota, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Supporters of Mr Emery claim that Canada's Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is instigating a "culture war" by not intervening in his extradition. Mr Emery's wife, Jodie Emery, called on other marijuana activists to shut down Hastings Street, a busy corridor in Vancouver, in protest at his extradition. "My husband committed a crime punishable by only a $200 fine in Canada, yet this Conservative government is sending him to serve up to 25 years in US jail," Mrs Emery said in a press release on Thursday morning. She added: "I promise you, Stephen Harper, we will hound you until you are nothing but an unpleasant memory." |
| I'm feeling a overhang right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Ashigaikha replied on Fri May 21, 2010 @ 9:47pm |
 Coolness: 73865 | *sad face* |
| I'm feeling sun : hathor right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» DynV replied on Fri May 21, 2010 @ 10:17pm |
 Coolness: 108835 | While I don't agree with domestic violence, that women in recent news that moved to Iran and don't want to come back without her kids there should have known better than her husband saying/promising she'd be treated as if they were in Canada while in Iran together. People tend to take as much freedom as possible within the confines of the law whatever that is as well as do worse than usual when aggressive, didn't she notice that?
About judging her husband, I'll make a comparison with machismo: If I lived in a district where everyone knew each other and you were judged by "manly honor", as in forgiveness and compassion are making you seem unworthy of respect, if I got in a confrontation then came in a position of superiority (with a possibility of forgiveness), I'd still beat the other up badly because I like walking the streets without being heckled or tested. That's sick to me but it's likely sick to them that we prance around with all our comforts, where police come when there's a fight that would ended by itself with just a few small bruises. Going back to the women, I'm sure people noticed his wife is beaten up and if it was unacceptable, that he'd be put in his place so there's likely reasons to do so. Different places, different people, different rules. Know better! Update » DynV wrote on Fri May 21, 2010 @ 10:51pm a police that doesn't end up beating up the one requesting their help... |
| I'm feeling <3 sexi_babe_69 right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» databoy replied on Sun May 23, 2010 @ 7:21am |
 Coolness: 106145 | Steven Harper is the worst Canadian EVER! |
| I'm feeling regenerate right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope replied on Sun May 23, 2010 @ 6:20pm |
 Coolness: 201255 | Canada is USA's bitch yet again |
| I'm feeling meow right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Gamos replied on Mon May 24, 2010 @ 8:36pm |
| Coolness: 93525 | You can help free Marc: [ freemarc.ca ]
Cbc is now reporting the story: cbc
Marijuana activist Marc Emery has pleaded guilty in a federal court in Seattle to drug distribution. Canada's so-called Prince of Pot admitted to the charge after reaching a plea agreement with American prosecutors and is expected to receive a five-year prison term. The 52-year-old was handed over to U.S. authorities Thursday after the federal justice minister ordered his extradition last week. In the plea agreement, Emery admitted he operated a marijuana seed distribution business that sold to customers via his Vancouver store, mail and telephone orders. Prosecutors say he's sold about four million marijuana seeds, and that 75 per cent of those went to American customers. Emery will remain in a federal detention centre in Washington state until his sentencing in late August. Emery expects to return to Canada to serve his sentence, according to his legal team. Read more: [ www.cbc.ca ] Update » Gamos wrote on Mon May 24, 2010 @ 9:01pm CNN just reported on the story:
[ edition.cnn.com ] (CNN) -- A man known as Canada's "prince of pot" pleaded guilty Monday in a deal with prosecutors that could send him to prison in the United States for five years. Marijuana activist Marc Emery pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, to a single count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana following an 18-month investigation into the seed-selling business Emery operated from his head shop in Vancouver, British Columbia. U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez scheduled Emery's sentencing August 11. At that time, the judge has the choice of accepting or rejecting the plea agreement, said Emery's Seattle-based attorney, Richard Troberman. "Based on comments the court has made. I have every reason to believe he will follow the plea agreement," Troberman told CNN. Emery, 52, was brought to the United States last week. Canada's justice minister signed an extradition order May 10 that left the outspoken libertarian with little choice after years of fighting extradition. "Marc has never been afraid to face the music," said Emery's wife, Jodie. "He's spent most of his life breaking laws he considers unjust to demonstrate they're unjust. He'll go to jail to prove how absurd our drug laws are." The plea comes nearly five years after Emery was arrested in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he says he was the guest speaker at the Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana festival. He was accused of selling marijuana seeds to customers in the United States. The same day, Emery wrote on his website, DEA agents raided his head shop in downtown Vancouver, where he sold bongs, pipes and books. He also produced the magazine Cannabis Culture and ran an Internet portal, Pot-TV. The head shop was the headquarters of Emery Direct Seeds, the target of the DEA's 18-month undercover investigation. During the investigation, according to court documents, agents bought seeds from Emery's business over the internet and in person. Investigators also traced his product to illegal growing operations in several states, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a July 2005 news release. A statement issued by the DEA in 2005 after Emery's arrest suggested that he was targeted for his activism, with DEA Administrator Karen Tandy touting his capture as a "significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the United States and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement." Tandy described Emery as one of 46 of the U.S. attorney general's most wanted international drug traffickers and the only one from Canada, with his "marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine" generating nearly $5 million in profits. Emery and two of his employees were each charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and conspiracy to lauder money, charges that carry penalties of 10 years to life in prison. After years of legal wrangling with Canadian and U.S. authorities, Emery reached the plea deal on the lesser charge, Troberman said. Co-defendants Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek entered pleas this year to lesser offenses and were placed on probation in Canada, according to court documents. They were never brought to the United States. Tandy stepped down as DEA administrator in 2007, and U.S. authorities seem to have backed down from her 2005 hard-line stance. The news release can no longer be found on the Department of Justice website, and the DEA referred calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle. "This prosecution has to do with his criminal activities and has nothing to do with his political activism," said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Langlie added that she could not comment on the 2005 DEA statement. Emery summed up his raison d'etre in a lengthy article published in Cannabis Culture and online after his arrest. He described his thoughts at the moment he was handcuffed: "Every seed sold, all the millions of dollars I had given to the cause, every speech to free our people, every arrest, jailing and raid I had endured: it was all for this moment in time." Much like in the United States, distribution and trafficking carry heavier punishments: a maximum of seven years for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for conspiracy to traffic in marijuana, according to a spokeswoman for Department of Justice Canada. In practice, Canadian judges rarely mete out sentences longer than two years plus fines, based on a policy of judicial guidance that calls for incarceration as the last resort, according to several criminal defense lawyers and drug policy experts. "Sentences typically don't reach the mandatory minimums that are in place in U.S. federal system," Vancouver defense lawyer Kirk Tousaw said. He is Emery's legal counsel in Canada, a contributor to his magazine and attorney for his co-defendants. Extradition to the United States, however, is commonplace in cases of Canadians accused of selling or smuggling drugs in the United States, said Troberman, Emery's Seattle-based attorney. He has represented many Canadians in the United States. "The only thing that makes this case somewhat unusual is that Marc was very visible and open about everything he did, and the Canadians had no interest in prosecuting him," Troberman said. "It was the U.S. who stepped in and put pressure on Canada." Emery is the founder of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, and his status in Canada as a tireless champion for marijuana reform has been cemented through more than a decade of sit-ins, demonstrations and runs for political office. By his own account, he has been arrested at least a dozen times since 1995 related to his activism, and Vancouver Police have raided his shop several times since it opened in 1994. In media interviews and biographies posted on [ CannabisCulture.com ] Emery claims to have been fined twice for selling seeds and says he has spent three months in a Saskatchewan jail after being caught passing a joint in public. "Some people will say he pushed it too far, but that's his approach. He's the enforcer on a hockey team. He makes everyone else look polite," said Eugene Oscapella, a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, which shares many of Emery's goals but pursues them through public education and legislative efforts. To Oscapella and others familiar with Emery, the trajectory of his activism made martyrdom in a U.S. prison the next natural step. "He did this on purpose. He did it knowing the potential consequences," Oscapella said of Emery's Direct Seeds. "Emery has always stuck his neck out. He's a civil libertarian, almost an anarchist, so it's very much his character to thumb his nose at U.S. drug policies." People familiar with the case said Emery's fate was sealed when the current conservative Canadian government came into power touting a law and order agenda that included vows to bring in mandatory minimum laws for certain drug offenses. From behind bars, Emery continues to guide the movement with the help of his wife, Jodie, and legions of supporters. He plans to apply for a transfer to Canada after he is formally sentenced, which is expected to occur in two to three months, his lawyer said. Emery sent a message to supporters in an recorded telephone call with his wife while he awaited extradition. He urged them to keep up the fight against mandatory minimum sentences and other new drug enforcement laws by adopting "militant" tactics, like sit-ins at the offices of MPs and traffic blockades. "If just one person, me, being in jail is what it takes to arouse thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Americans and Canadians to get out and be involved and be responsible and take charge and take the initiative, then I'm a very happy individual." |
| I'm feeling a overhang right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Kishmay_Pinas replied on Tue May 25, 2010 @ 12:10am |
 Coolness: 103285 | This is bullshit. The crown should have dealt with american authorities and he should be tried by a trial of his peers in b.c not washington state. This is a huge breach of our sovereignty |
| I'm feeling ez sessions monday wut! right now.. | |
Marc Emery: Extradited
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