Pubdate: Fri, 05 Aug 2005
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.
Contact:  http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Patrick Maloney
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

EMERY FACES BIGGEST BATTLE

When Marc Emery first stood eye to eye with America's anti-drug crusade, he 
didn't blink before walking outside, claiming victory and lighting up a joint.

It was on that wintery Vancouver day in 2002 that Emery -- the London-bred 
business prodigy, who became Canada's Prince of Pot -- first tangled with 
U.S. drug officials, attending a $500-a-table Vancouver speaking engagement 
for John Walters, the czar of Washington's drug war.

Having identified himself as the publisher of Cannabis Culture, according 
to the magazine's website, Emery forced Walters to turn red and back away. 
Along with two pals, he heckled Walters's speech with shouts of "liar," 
defying local police, politicians and secret service agents.

"We weren't rude, we were assertive," recalls David Malmo-Levine, who sat 
with Emery that day. "That was a fair, momentary interjection."

After poking authority in the eye, Emery walked out and lit up his support 
for the marijuana cause that's brought him notoriety since he first got 
behind it here in London.

That's Marc Emery, who this newspaper once dubbed "the love-him-or-hate-him 
entrepreneur /politician/ debater/libertarian."

But he hadn't seen the last of the U.S. anti-drug bosses -- far from it.

Last Friday, his Vancouver business -- which has shipped millions of 
dollars in marijuana seeds into the U.S. -- was raided by RCMP officers on 
behalf of America's Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

It's illegal to sell marijuana seeds in America, but not in Canada.

After decades of raising hell and staring down authority, the 
highest-profile protester to ever come out of London is now battling his 
biggest, baddest opponent. He's been in jail before, but Emery, who 
remained behind bars yesterday, has never seen a fight like this.

Could this be Marc Emery's last stand?

Even his tough-talking backers and long-time supporters, who point to this 
as a breach of Canadian sovereignty, offer a gulp of fear at the very real 
possibility of a trial on American drug charges.

"I do see this as the one fight he can't win," says London historian Chris 
Doty, a longtime friend working on a play about Emery's life.

"This is David and Goliath."

* *

One of four children born to Alfred and Eileen Emery, Marc Emery grew up on 
Parliament Crescent and quickly developed his remarkable money-making savvy.

An anecdote his mother once told proves that: A box of valuable scrap metal 
sat untouched in their home's basement until one day it all disappeared and 
young Emery -- not quite in his teens -- had bankrolled his first business, 
selling comic books.

Later Emery dropped out of high school and bought City Lights bookstore, a 
Richmond Street success story that still stands today, 30 years later.

It was a success that afforded Emery the chance to fight for what he then 
called "unrestricted individual freedom." His first fight, Doty says, 
showed the spirit Emery still throws into everything.

Unhappy with a city levy foisted upon his book store, Emery launched a 
three-year fight to get rid of the Downtown Business Improvement tax. He 
failed, but the experience only whetted his appetite for conflict.

He worked to derail London's taxpayer-sponsored Pan-American Games bid. He 
spent three days in jail after defying provincial Sunday shopping laws.

In 1990, he held his first pro-pot rally, renting out the Museum London 
lecture hall and inviting marijuana activists.

His pot crusade in British Columbia made it to the pages of Rolling Stone 
in 1998.

More recently, he returned to London in 2003 to smoke a marijuana joint on 
the steps of London police headquarters.

Some Londoners have come to love Emery. Others positively loathe him.

But to his brother, who still lives here, he deserves respect.

"I think he's a man who stands up for what he believes in -- exactly the 
kind of brother I'd like to have," Matthew Emery said this week. "I admire 
him. That's all I care about."

Their father, Alfred, died on June 6. It was his influence, Matthew Emery 
says, that moulded Marc's fighting spirit. In an obituary he wrote, Marc 
Emery referred to himself as "the proud son of the greatest father ever."

Despite the threat posed by the DEA, Matthew Emery dismissed any notion 
that his brother should be nervous.

"We'll go out and get knocked down and get back up again," he said.

* * * *

The U.S. government's request to extradite Emery from British Columbia -- 
where he has lived since 1992 -- will go unchallenged by our federal 
justice department, a spokesperson has said, noting the move is well within 
America's rights.

In Washington yesterday, one DEA official scoffed at the suggestion the 
arrest threatens Canada's sovereignty.

"The nationality is irrelevant to us," Garrison Courtney said. "If there's 
somebody moving coke into Canada from the United States . . . we 
investigate that individual and extradite them into Canada.

"It's reciprocity."

Though some are loathe to think it, Londoners should take credit for making 
Emery the activist he is today, Doty said.

Having fought against the city's conservative attitudes time and again 
while running City Lights, the young activist was only strengthened by 
those opponents.

Either way the extradition fight goes, it will serve to only make the 
London native more famous. It's his toughest fight, but could also be his 
biggest victory.

"If he wins, he wins; and if he loses, he wins because he becomes a martyr 
for the cause," Doty said.

"It took the power of the U.S. government to (slow) him down. That says a 
lot about Marc Emery and a lot less, I think, about Canada."
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