Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2013
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2013 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Jessica Murphy
Page: 5

JUST BLOWIN' SMOKE

Pot activist denies toking with Trudeau

OTTAWA - Pro-pot activist Marc Emery is offering his mea culpas to
Justin Trudeau from a U.S. jail for saying he'd smoked pot a few times
with the Liberal leader.

But Emery said he did get high once with Trudeau in August 2003 on a
restaurant patio in Vancouver, though it was Emery "doing most of the
smoking."

Trudeau said Friday Emery was "flat out lying" about the '09
allegations, only met Emery once, and abstained from any pot use with
the activist.

Emery apologized in an e-mailed response to questions about his
remarks.

In the e-mail, forwarded to QMI Agency on Saturday by his wife, Jodie,
he says it was a "very loose and irresponsible misrepresentation of
what most people would regard 'four or five times.'

"I am indeed recorded telling a falsehood that, until now, I was
unaware was out there. I'm totally embarrassed about it. I take my
reputation very seriously, as of course, does Mr. Trudeau, and I'm
really saddened that I have caused him some grief by this clear
misrepresentation."

Emery said a video of his remarks only began circulating online after
his 2010 sentencing and incarceration in Yazoo City federal prison in
Mississippi, where he's currently serving a five-year term for selling
pot seeds by mail.

"I am wrong, wrong, wrong," he said. "That video was recorded in July
2009. I was clearly upset that in the 2009 session of Parliament Mr.
Trudeau supported the Conservative legislation on mandatory minimums
for pot."

The video shows Emery calling the now Liberal leader a "hypocrite" for
voting along with the rest of the Liberal caucus in favour of Bill
C-15, which would have introduced tougher penalties for growing pot
plants and saying he'd smoked pot with Trudeau on more than one occasion.

C-15 did not pass, but similar legislation became law in 2012 as part
of omnibus crime bill Bill C-10.

Earlier this week, Trudeau revealed he had smoked pot "five or six"
times in his life, including once about three years ago at a dinner
party.
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MAP posted-by: Matt