EMERY'S RIGHTS DENIED

Dear Editor,

I do not know about Canada, but in the United States, law enforcement
officials who under the colour of law deprive individuals their
rights is a crime.

In response to Matthew Claxton [Stoners need better arguments, April
30 Painful Truth, Langley Advance], the Canadian and American
judiciary have reviewed the marijuana laws by rational review.

Rational review is used by the courts when no fundamental rights are
affected by the law. Judicial review of these criminal laws by
rational review is deprivation of rights under the colour of law.

Poor Mark Emery is not recognized as a person; neither am I. He is
being deprived of his liberty for political reasons.

The lawyers in both countries do not care that these criminal laws
affect individual rights to liberty, to property, and to privacy
secured from unreasonable deprivation by your Charter of Rights and
Freedoms and the Bill of Rights of the United States.

Due process of law, the rule of law requires laws that affect
fundamental rights to be reasonable and necessary. The laws must be
demonstrably justified by a compelling state interest, to protect
public health and public safety, to be reasonable.

To be reasonable, the laws must protect you from me and me from you,
not me from myself.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and
freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits
prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and
democratic society.

Selling marijuana seeds through the mail does not threaten the rights
of others.

The private growing and private use of marijuana is not a threat to
public safety.

So why is Marc Emery going to prison in the United States?

Deprivation of his rights, under the colour of law, is a criminal offence.

Michael J. Dee,

Windham, Maine, USA