Nicholson approves Marc Emery extradition .. dysfunctional US “war on drugs” crosses border into Canada

May 10th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief
Marc Emery turns himself in outside BC Supreme Court. JILL DREWS, NEWS1130 Vancouver.

Marc Emery turns himself in outside BC Supreme Court. JILL DREWS, NEWS1130 Vancouver.

According to Marc Emery’s wife Jodie, the Canadian Conservative minority government’s “Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has approved the extradition of her husband” to the United States, where he faces jail time “for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.” Emery “surrendered himself to authorities this morning at court in Vancouver.” His “lawyer, Kirk Tousaw, said as part of a plea bargain deal, Emery will not appeal the extradition order and will likely be transferred to Seattle within a week.”

We are not unreserved admirers of Mr. Emery. But we cannot see how the actions of  Justice Minister Nicholson in this case can be seriously viewed as anything but an importation of the dysfunctional US “war on drugs” into what is supposed to be the sovereign territory of Canada. As we understand the issue, Mr. Emery has been selling marijuana seeds over the Internet while resident in Canada to individuals in various parts of the world. Does the current Canadian federal government’s position mean that he is also liable to extradition to a southeast Asian country with an even more draconian drug regime than the United States?

However you look at it, Mr. Harper’s Conservative Party of Canada – currently supported by little more than a third of the Canadian people – has some gall when it accuses official opposition leader Michael Ignatieff of “just visiting” Canada. Mr. Harper may have lived here physically all his life, but he puts an increasingly dysfunctional international ideology first. As Ottawa pundit Jeffrey Simpson has recently noted: “The Conservatives have a few themes, one of which is to be ‘tough on crime.’ But there is a difference between being tough on crime and being stupid about crime, a difference the Conservatives have not learned.”

Sativa Steve’s apparently quite legal medical marijuana store in San Francisco : what is it Marc Emery’s going to jail for again?

Sativa Steve’s apparently quite legal medical marijuana store in San Francisco : what is it Marc Emery’s going to jail for again?

And does anyone really believe that any US federal government in Washington is going to extradite to Canada US citizens resident in the United States who are selling goods and services over the Internet that violate Canadian laws? What we really need in Canada today is a Canadian federal government that actually believes in its own country. What we have, it too often seems, is a secretive,  sloganeering, and more and more hypocritical administration most Canadians did not vote for, that is unwilling to stand up for Canadian institutions and Canadian laws. What will it sacrifice next?

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