Pubdate: Fri, 23 Dec 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Keith Fraser, The Province
Cited: http://www.kubby.com/
Related: http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=872
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/kubby.htm (Kubby, Steve and Michele)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

PRO-MARIJUANA COUPLE FIGHTING ORDER TO LEAVE

Steve and Michele Kubby, medicinal-marijuana advocates from 
California who were denied refugee status here, now face removal from 
Canada - barring a last-ditch, court-ordered stay in early January.

Yesterday, Michele Kubby lost her appeal of a B.C. Supreme Court 
ruling that rejected her argument that Canada's marijuana 
medicinal-access regulations were unconstitutional.

She'd been rejected in her application to Health Canada for 
permission to use pot for an unspecified ailment -- an application 
that had been accepted for her husband, who suffers from adrenal cancer.

The couple, parents of two young girls, are pursuing a stay of their 
removal order. If the bid fails, the family will be deported.

"We are being politely asked by border services to leave by the 12th 
of January," Michele Kubby told The Province yesterday. "They're 
giving us time to get our affairs in order and then leave by midnight 
on the 12th of January. They say: 'We won't touch you, we won't 
arrest you or anything -- until the 12th of January.'"

Kubby and her husband plan to go to the Federal Court of Canada on 
Jan. 9 seeking the stay.

Steve Kubby came to B.C. in 2001 after drug charges were laid against 
him and he was later convicted in California of what he calls 
possession of "minute quantities of mescaline and psilocin." He 
claims the police extracted the drugs from remnants of a cactus and a 
mushroom found in a guest bedroom in the Kubbys' California home.

The Kubbys say since arriving in Canada they've obeyed the law and 
don't deserve to be returned to the U.S., where Steve faces 
potentially life-threatening incarceration. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake