Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2013
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2013 The Calgary Sun
Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Jessica Murphy
Page: 12

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."
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MAP posted-by: Matt