Marc Emery: Difference between revisions
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While Emery's support for marijuana reform has won him the support of [[civil libertarian]]s from the left, his views on most issues are closer to the libertarian right. He favours the abolition of [[public education]] in favour of private tutorship, and is against spending tax revenues on health-care for persons over the age of seventy. On the latter subject, Emery has said, "We spend far too much of our taxpayers' money on a rapidly growing population of old people. We're spending lots of money keeping _ many many millions of old people _ alive when it would be much more honourable to let them die in a dignified way".[http://www.langleyadvance.com/issues05/042105/news/042105nn7.html] He claims that those over seventy should be responsible for their own health care, and should not rely on the state for funding. Emery has also noted that many senior citizens are being kept alive against their wishes, citing his own father as an example. |
While Emery's support for marijuana reform has won him the support of [[civil libertarian]]s from the left, his views on most issues are closer to the libertarian right. He favours the abolition of [[public education]] in favour of private tutorship, and is against spending tax revenues on health-care for persons over the age of seventy. On the latter subject, Emery has said, "We spend far too much of our taxpayers' money on a rapidly growing population of old people. We're spending lots of money keeping _ many many millions of old people _ alive when it would be much more honourable to let them die in a dignified way".[http://www.langleyadvance.com/issues05/042105/news/042105nn7.html] He claims that those over seventy should be responsible for their own health care, and should not rely on the state for funding. Emery has also noted that many senior citizens are being kept alive against their wishes, citing his own father as an example. |
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During the [[2005]] campaign, Emery attracted controversy for his comments about [[Langley, British Columbia|Langley]] residents, referring to many in the riding as "old people who are intolerant and bigoted and hate young people |
During the [[2005]] campaign, Emery attracted controversy for his comments about [[Langley, British Columbia|Langley]] residents, referring to many in the riding as "old people who are intolerant and bigoted and hate young people". |
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== 2005 arrest == |
== 2005 arrest == |
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Revision as of 21:11, 5 September 2005
Marc Emery (born 1959) is a Canadian cannabis advocate. He is the publisher for Cannabis Culture Magazine. He also ran for mayor of the city of Vancouver in 1996 and 2002, and came in fifth the second time. He was formerly a retailer of marijuana seeds for cultivation, having started Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds in 1995, which he ran until it was closed by a raid by Vancouver police acting on the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on July 29, 2005. His outspoken advocacy in favor of legalizing marijuana led the media, beginning with CNN in the United States, to dub him "The Prince of Pot," a nickname he embraces heartily.
Early career
Emery lived in London, Ontario during the 1970s and 1980s, and worked as a bookstore owner. He was involved in several "Freedom of Speech" controversies during this period, and often sold materials which contravened (or appeared to contravene) Canadian law.
He first became politically active with the Libertarian Party of Canada, and ran for the Canadian House of Commons under that party's banner in the 1980 federal election. He received 197 votes in London East, finishing fourth. The winner was Liberal Charles Turner.
Emery later left the Libertarians and became an organizer for the Unparty. On January 1, 1984, he and Robert Metz broke from the Unparty to form the Freedom Party of Ontario, which still exists. Although the Freedom Party rejects the term "libertarian" for philosophical reasons, it is generally considered to be a party of the libertarian right.
In the 1987 provincial election, Emery ran as a candidate of the Freedom Party in the rural constituency of Middlesex, near London. He received 499 votes for a distant fifth-place finish. The winner was Doug Reycraft of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Marijuana Party activist
Emery moved to British Columbia in 1994, and founded a store called Hemp BC. His store played a major part in expanding Canada's semi-underground industry in marijuana-related paraphernalia. The Vancouver police conducted a major raid on Emery's store in 1996, and seized his entire stock in 1998. After this, he switched his seed business to a mail order basis, and began publishing Cannabis Culture magazine. In 2000, he established Pot TV on the internet.
Emery has been self-described as a "major financial backer of almost every pro-pot effort in North America and many more around the world"[1]
He was an active member the Marijuana Party of Canada, a political party running to fully legalize (not just decriminalize) marijuana. Ironically Emery has spoken out and campaigned against proposed government bills to decriminalize marijuana as his business interests would be threatened by legalisation of marijuana. He later helped found the British Columbia Marijuana Party as a political party is not subject to city business license requirements, a party that he currently leads Emery ran for the Canadian House of Commons for a second time in the 2000 federal election, and finished sixth out of ten candidates in Vancouver Centre with 1,116 votes. Liberal Hedy Fry won the riding.
The BCMP placed 5th in the 2001 election and was only a few hundred votes short of 4th place. Emery himself received 905 votes in Vancouver-Burrard, finishing fourth against BC Liberal Lorne Mayencourt.
Emery has been the BC Marijuana Party's president since its founding, and also became party leader after the 2001 election, when Brian Taylor resigned to protest what he described as Emery's control over the party. Taylor said that Emery's control over the party was "appropriate for [the] election because it was an emergency, but it is no way to run a political party". [2]
On October 18, 2004, he was released from a correctional center in Saskatoon after serving his 90 day sentence for passing a Marijuana joint.
For the 2005 campaign, Emery ran in Fort Langley-Aldergrove against his political nemesis, provincial Solicitor General Rich Coleman.
While Emery's support for marijuana reform has won him the support of civil libertarians from the left, his views on most issues are closer to the libertarian right. He favours the abolition of public education in favour of private tutorship, and is against spending tax revenues on health-care for persons over the age of seventy. On the latter subject, Emery has said, "We spend far too much of our taxpayers' money on a rapidly growing population of old people. We're spending lots of money keeping _ many many millions of old people _ alive when it would be much more honourable to let them die in a dignified way".[3] He claims that those over seventy should be responsible for their own health care, and should not rely on the state for funding. Emery has also noted that many senior citizens are being kept alive against their wishes, citing his own father as an example.
During the 2005 campaign, Emery attracted controversy for his comments about Langley residents, referring to many in the riding as "old people who are intolerant and bigoted and hate young people".
2005 arrest
On July 29, 2005, Canadian police, acting on a request from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, raided the BC Marijuana Party Bookstore and Headquarters in Vancouver and arrested Emery outside a local storefront in the Downtown of Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, where he was attending a HempFest, for extradition to the United States. Emery, as well as two of his associates, had been indicted by a secret U.S. federal grand jury in Washington State on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and distribute marijuana seeds. These charges could land them life in prison in the United States, if they are ordered to serve the terms consecutively. Canadian police have not laid charges.
Emery is currently free on a $50,000 bail and preparing to fight extradition in the courts. Avenues of defense available to Emery include alleging that the DEA's extradition request is politically motivated, or that he would suffer cruel and unusual punishment if extradited and sentenced according to the charges on him, or that the primary offense for which extradition is sought, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, is not currently considered an offense in Canada because the law is rarely enforced. The last may be a weak avenue, as laws prohibiting sales of viable marijuana seeds remain on the books in Canada. If the Canadian courts agree with Emery's arguments, they could declare him not extraditable.
External link
Information on the Marc Emery Extradition
- Simon Pole on Marc Emery
- Free Marc Emery
- Bill St. Clair on Marc Emery
- Smoke Out America
- Listen to the Free Marc Emery single