Pubdate: Mon, 18 Aug 2014
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2014 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Karen Selick
Page: A7

'PRINCE OF POT' A CANADIAN HERO

Marc Emery a powerful force for liberty in Canada

It's not often that I disagree with Globe and Mail columnist Margaret
Wente, but her recent column on Marc Emery (Pot still fails the sniff
test) triggered one of those rare occasions.

Unlike the "Prince of Pot", I don't use marijuana. I never have, and
probably never will, even if it were to become legal for recreational
use.

But then, I don't use alcohol either. Slowing down my brain just isn't
my cup of tea.

Nevertheless, I have been a staunch admirer of Marc's ever since I
first met him, about 38 years ago, long before he began championing
pot legalization.

Marc has been a powerful force for liberty in Canada on several
fronts.

For instance, he helped legalize Sunday shopping by operating his
London, Ontario, bookstore seven days a week, back when it was illegal
to do so. He even went to jail over that issue, after refusing to pay
his fines. That four-day stint proved to be merely a practice run for
his later five-year marijuana-related imprisonment.

Marc challenged Canada's obscenity laws by selling banned music tapes.
He then racked up a freedom-of-speech victory by publishing a
marijuana newsletter at a time when the Criminal Code forbade it. An
Ontario court eventually struck down that law as contrary to the Charter.

Marc has also contributed to the welfare of his fellow Canadians by
diligently reporting every penny of income from his marijuana seed
business - more than $4 million cumulatively over the years - and
paying federal and provincial income tax on it (at least, if you
believe that those governments will spend that tax revenue on
Canadians' welfare, which is questionable. But I digress).

Canada has changed radically since Marc first set out to legalize pot.
There are now approximately 40,000 legal medical marijuana users, with
some estimates saying there will be half a million in 10 years' time.
A survey released last week by the Department of Justice showed that
70 per cent of Canadians want the law softened, either by legalization
or decriminalization. Even the Fraser Institute (the free-market think
tank whose name is usually preceded in media reports by the epithet
"right-wing") published a report a decade ago describing the benefits
of legalizing pot.

Marc plowed all of his seed sale profits into funding the legalization
movement, keeping nothing for himself except what he needed to live
on. He made a large donation of seed money (pun intended) to help
organizers in Colorado. That state is now one of two (Washington is
the other) that have legalized pot for both medicinal and recreational
purposes. Another 21 U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow
medical marijuana. Four other states have decriminalized it, reducing
the penalty for possession to fines, rather than a jail sentence and a
criminal record. Even John McKay, the former U.S. attorney who
prosecuted Marc, has changed his mind and now publicly favours
legalization.

While Marc didn't do this single-handedly, there is no question that
he was a driving force in the movement. He is at least partly
responsible for the fact that hundreds of thousands of people across
North America now have legal access to a medication that helps relieve
their pain and epileptic seizures. He can also take credit for keeping
hundreds of thousands of people out of jail. He has achieved these
victories at great personal cost, doing several stints in Canadian
jails before his most recent U.S. imprisonment.

Wente said that Marc's no hero, but I disagree. He has shown
exceptional courage and perseverance. He has made huge personal
sacrifices. His actions have benefitted thousands, if not millions, of
people. That's pretty heroic in my books. But what about Wente's
charge that Marc is "among the most obnoxious jerks in Canadian public
life" and a "relentless self-promoter who's compared himself to Gandhi
and Martin Luther King"?

Yup, Marc talks a lot. He talks quickly - too quickly for some people
to grasp what he is saying. Sometimes he talks when it's really
somebody else's turn to talk. But where's the rule that says a hero
has to be perfect? These are minor flaws, all things considered,
especially since most of what Marc says makes extraordinarily good
sense, and is something that people urgently need to hear.

And I'll bet neither Gandhi nor King were perfect, either.

Karen Selick is the litigation director for the Canadian Constitution 
Foundation.
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MAP posted-by: Matt