Pubdate: Sun, 29 May 2016
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Page: 3
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.winnipegsun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Jim Bender

JUST BLOWING SMOKE

Pot Protesters Call Out PM on Lack of Action on Promise to Legalize

A disillusioned group of medical marijuana users rallied outside the 
RBC Convention Centre hoping to capture the attention of Prime 
Minister Justin Trudeau during the Liberal Party convention Saturday.

Once enthused by Trudeau's election promise to legalize marijuana, 
the group was stunned by Project Claudia, a raid where 90 people at 
multiple cannabis dispensaries were arrested in Toronto on Thursday.

"I'm here to defend dispensaries and what went on in Toronto," said 
Holly Plouffe, who legally uses medicinal marijuana to address a 
number of health conditions. "I think that's a terrible waste of tax 
dollars. Cannabis is saving lives. Cannabis is saving my life. I've 
been terribly sick and it's doing me far better than any prescription 
pills ever have, and I really want to see the mania stopped. People 
are sick. They have taken away medicine from sick people. Thousands 
of sick people are going without today and that is wrong."

Theirs was the largest of five protests groups that stood outside the 
Convention Centre, with about 20 people lighting up.

"I don't believe a word that Trudeau says any more," said Marciana 
Dankewich, the Manitoba rep for International Women's Cannabis 
Coalition. "Justin Trudeau has chosen to beat the crap out of the 
most vulnerable citizens of our country and I'm just sickened by it, 
and I'm ashamed."

Concerned

They are also concerned. "We're here because the federal government, 
and Justin Trudeau specifically, is failing the cannabis community as 
well as all Canadians by the lacklustre approach he's having towards 
legalization efforts," said advocate Steven Stairs. "Frankly, we're 
here to tell him what he's doing is a bit of a joke. We want him to 
make better changes.

"His talk for the last three and a half years was about legalization 
and how it's going to make Canadians safer and all this access for 
patients has just been poised for Canadians to vote for because he 
could immediately decriminalize pot right now, put a moratorium on 
arrests ... But, he chooses not to."

Stairs alleged that Bill Blair, a former police chief put in charge 
of the Toronto task force, "has been known to persecute pot users in 
the past," he said.

"We're not vigilantes, we're moms, we're grandmothers, we're aunts, 
we're uncles," said Dankewich, whose organization boasts 842 members. 
"I hope to see some change in the future, but it's us that's going to 
make the change.

"(Trudeau) was elected on that platform, so I'm very disappointed. 
He's a lazy Prime Minister."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom