Pubdate: Mon,  5 Sep 2005
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
 Author: Bill Kaufmann, Calgary Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

JOHNNY APPLESEED OF POT FALLS VICTIM TO 'ROGUE REGIME'

For some Canadians, being a doormat for the Bush administration is a
sign of strength and fortitude.

Alberta always seems to harbour more of these types of Canadians than
any other province; to them, servility to Washington over Iraq and
missile defence is proof of having a spine.

Some arms of our government have followed suit, bending over every
which way to accommodate the U.S. in its pursuit of B.C.-based
marijuana seed peddler Marc Emery.

There's been no sign that our law enforcement authorities will alter
their submissive ways even in the face of Washington's all-too
characteristic flouting of international law -- this time in the
softwood lumber dispute.

Mind-bogglingly, we're still willing to play ball with a rogue regime
in its attempt to extradite Emery to face charges for what's legal in
Canada. The DEA was having a slow week in its eternally dubious "war
on drugs," so it was Canada to the rescue.

Bush tauntingly withholds $5 billion in duties that rightly belong to
our lumber industry, while we grovellingly expend legal resources and
sovereignty rounding up a botanist for a coun-try that won't do us any
favours.

Instead, maybe Canada should insist on the extradition of those U.S.
leaders who so incompetently invaded Afghanistan, setting up their
warlord allies to transform that land into a narco state that's
flooding the world with cheap heroin.

While the George W. Bush posse hunts a Canadian cannabis Johnny
Appleseed, it crafts a plan to counter rapacious crystal meth that
even fellow Republicans are condemning as toothless and a sop to
big-business.

The plan would limit the amount of crystal meth precursor
pseudo-ephedrine to be sold by retailers at 110 pills at a time -- not
per month, nor confined to pharmacies.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said it appears the White
House was "listening more to Wal-Mart than to the economic and social
problems" sown by meth. That's only one instance of the U.S.
government also kowtowing to a pharmaceutical industry -- whose
products we're led to believe are essential but cause more damage to
health than Emery ever could.

Law and order types in Canada so willing to offer up Emery should
insist the U.S. tighten its death-friendly gun laws and rein in a
weapons industry pumping out handguns it knows are smuggled in
abundance across the border. Unlike Emery's seeds, it's an export
that's ending lives.

Of course, none of that would occur to those who were readying the red
carpet for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was heading this way
to drool over the oilsands until he had to postpone because of
Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

When asked if a visit by the man whose lies led to an enduring
bloodbath in a suspiciously oil-soaked Iraq makes him nervous, Premier
Ralph Klein shrugged his shoulders.

"The U.S. administration is finally paying attention to the oilsands
in particular," said Ralph.

Oh, they've been paying attention for some time, Ralph.

"As it relates to the U.S. national energy policy, as opposed to the
NEP that we had, where (the U.S.) seeks to have a secure and reliable
supply of oil abroad, it speaks to the fact they need to look no
further than Can-ada," added Klein, who could've been describing the
U.S. NEP in action "abroad" in Iraq.

Klein's successors may find they've a lot less reason to look with
concern at Ottawa's covetousness than Washington's.

An energy-hungry bully that tells us how it's going to be in sectors
like lumber regardless of trade rulings, fairness and law might find
it even harder to resist reading us the riot act in who we sell our
hydrocarbons to.

Nothing would focus the mind of someone like the champion
of-secret-energy-policy Cheney than threatening to withhold
preferential treatment on petroleum matters.

Meanwhile, with their border still closed to older Canadian cattle,
the U.S. continues to screw us over beef. Our continued politeness
over it is astounding.

At a recent press conference over just that issue, Conservative MP
Myron Thompson, whose party serves as apologists for the outlaw Bush
bunch, seemed to be getting an inkling.

"Stop the greed, stop the feuding -- let's get serious," implored
Myron, on the verge of awakening to the Bush-Cheney scorn for
international agreements unless it suits them.

Sorry, Myron -- the Bush cartel that ignores treaties on torture,
military aggression, disarmament, global warming and trade isn't about
to play nice with even a sycophantic Canada.

What has British submission to Bush won Tony Blair other than White
House contempt and homegrown terrorism?
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin