MP DISMISSES REPORT OF MARIJUANA MEETING

Brenda Chamberlain says she and other backbench MPs were not trying to
enlist the U.S. into bullying the Canadian government away from
decriminalizing marijuana at a meeting in Ottawa last July.

"It was silliness," Chamberlain, Guelph-Wellington's MP, said in reaction
to allegations about the meeting between a group of Liberals, including
Chamberlain, and Barry Crane, deputy director for supply reduction at the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

According to Toronto media reports, a document that is apparently someone's
minutes of the meeting on July 8 says the gathering was arranged to solicit
the help of U.S. officials to defeat decriminalization.

The memo says that MP Dan McTeague told Crane, known as the U.S. drug czar,
to tell his superiors that the U.S. "needed to be clear with Canada about
the consequences of this action. This view was particularly expressed by
(Brenda) Chamberlain, who appeared to suggest that U.S. officials needed to
tie trade and border issues to this bill in order to defeat it."

Chamberlain told the Mercury she said no such thing and pointed out the
fuzzy wording.

"How do you appear to suggest something?" she said.

Referring to her own notes from the meeting, Chamberlain told the Mercury
Wednesday discussions mainly focused on the ills of marijuana use,
including concerns expressed by Crane over the impacts of marijuana on road
safety, as well what he sees as contradictions between Canada's fight
against tobacco use and decriminalizing marijuana use.

Crane did warn the MPs that there will be be delays at the border for
Canadians crossing into the United States, said Chamberlain.

"They are going to be looking for this stuff (marijuana) big time," said
Chamberlain.

Chamberlain said the MPs told Crane to let Prime Minister Jean Chretien
know about the border impact, and Crane said he had done so already. The
MPs asked Crane to repeat the message, said Chamberlain.

"We need to know if there are going to be (impacts from decriminalization).
That's important in the decision making process," Chamberlain told the
Mercury. The July meeting was reported to have taken place at the U.S.
Embassy in Ottawa, but Chamberlain told the Mercury the session was
actually on Parliament Hill.

Chamberlain said the meeting is also being painted as a secret session, but
she pointed out that she spoke to the Mercury about it shortly afterward.

A story that ran in the Mercury during the week of the meeting says
Chamberlain had been part of a small group of MPs that met with Crane to
get "ammunition" for the fight against decriminalization and to "really
know what we are in for" because of decriminalization of marijuana use.