In July 2005 Marc Emery – Internet seed merchant, BC’s Marijuana Party leader and Canada’s preeminent pro-marijuana activist – was arrested in Halifax. That day, Vancouver police raided his store and arrested activists Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek. The raids were requested by the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Agency), which wanted “the BC3” extradited for conspiracy to sell pot seeds, conspiracy to grow marijuana and money laundering.
Demonstrations in support of the BC3 were held worldwide. In Canada it was taken up as a sovereignty and human rights issue.
A Question of Sovereignty
For a crime to be extraditable it must be illegal in both countries. It’s illegal to sell seeds in Canada but in 2005 about 50 companies openly did. In 30 years prior to the BC3 bust two people were charged with it: Emery, at the request of the DEA (7 counts of $700), and Victoria merchant Ian Hunter ($200). Until 2003 Health Canada referred medical marijuana users to the Internet for seeds.
This lack of enforcement, said Osgoode Hall Law School professor Allen Young, “almost leads to a de facto legalization.”
A Question of Human Rights
In the United States the BC3 each face ten years to life without parole for selling seeds, the same for conspiring to grow marijuana and minimum ten years for money laundering. Emery is technically a “kingpin,” subject to the death sentence.
Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek has Crohn’s, a painful chronic intestinal disease under Canada’s medical marijuana exemption laws. She won’t get her meds in a US prison.
Canadian courts have denied extradition, based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, where extreme punishment exists for narcotics possession.
False Charges for a Political Arrest
While the BC3 did sell marijuana seeds, the charge of money laundering holds less water.
To “launder” is to “transfer funds to conceal a dubious or illegal origin.” While Emery sold seeds online Revenue Canada collected $578 000 in taxes from him. He wrote “marijuana seed vendor” on every return. He has no offshore property or accounts, making continuous efforts at transparency in breaking laws he considers immoral.
Over 11 years prior to his arrest Emery donated $4 million, touring in support of the federal NDP Party, opening a free addiction clinic, financing compassion clubs, court challenges and medical bills for activists and funding a drive by the BC Green Party for proportional representation. Marc Emery is a well-respected activist, which may have led to his arrest.
The day of the BC3 arrest a DEA administrator stated that the arrest of “(the) publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade, but also the marijuana legalization movement.” This led former Canadian crown prosecutor Paul Champ to suggest that the Justice Minister should refuse extradition based on an exemption against political prosecutions.
The Ongoing Saga
After the arrests a trial was set for August 2006, reset and again reset for April 2008. By March 2008 Emery had negotiated a plea bargain with US authorities to accept a 10-year prison sentence and serve five, primarily in Canada, so long as charges against Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek were dropped.
According to a March 2008 editorial in the National Post, Canada’s Justice Minister Douglas Nicholson refused the plea bargain, on humanitarian grounds. Canadian law forbids that Emery must serve five years with no chance of parole. Because of this “humane” intervention the BC3 are back where they started, facing possible life imprisonment in the US.
For more information about the trial and how to influence its outcome, visit www.NoExtradition.net.
