MARCHING ON HIGH

For thousands of Montealers and millions worldwide, the Million Marijuana
March is both a fundamental right and a fun-filled rite of spring.

From its beginning in May 1998, when activists faced down then-New York
mayor Rudolph Giuliani in a U.S. federal court and won their right to march
for marijuana down New York's famed 5th Avenue, the first Saturday in May
has since become an internationally-recognized day of pro-marijuana marches
and festivals. Under the stewardship of the provincial Bloc Pot and federal
Marijuana Party, Montreal was one of the original participating cities.

In recent years they confined the march to the trendy streets of the
Plateau but organizers this year are taking the cause into the troubled
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, long considered the exclusive fiefdom of
outlaw biker gangs.

"We know many [East-end residents] are silently sympathetic to ending
marijuana prohibition and the violence associated with the drug trade,"
says federal Marijuana Party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice.

The march starts at "high" noon from Joliette metro, and will eventually
wind its way to Berri-UQAM Square. Their cavalcade will include a "rolling
stage" with a bevy of indigenous musicians, culled from local groups
GrimSkunk, Overbass and Cavaliers Noirs, under the cover-name "Collectivo."

Since coming out as a marijuana activist in 1993, St-Maurice has helped
organize five annual smoke-ins, four Million March parades, the provincial
Bloc Pot and the federal Marijuana Party. "It's been a long, strange trip,"
he recalls. "But strangest perhaps is our relationship with the police -
for this one day each year, they're really out there helping us. And each
year I find myself reminding people to be polite with the cops." "After
all, this is a celebration," he said, "not a demonstration." Participants
assemble at Metro Joliette around 11 a.m.