Paul McKeever

***Media Advisory***

Attention: News/Assignment Editors, Reporters

Marc Emery / Prince of Pot – Extradition

International Release of “THE PRINCIPLE OF POT” Documentary
To Precede Extradition Decision by Canadian Justice Minister

Movie to be released on YouTube.com at
12:01 AM (EST) on Monday, January 18, 2010

Just after midnight tonight, Ontario lawyer Paul McKeever will release Part 1 of “The Principle of Pot”, his new two-part documentary about the nature and motives of Marc Emery, the media-dubbed Prince of Pot. Part 1 runs 1 hour and 39 minutes. Part 2 will be released at a later date.

The launch is timed to precede a decision by Canada’s federal justice minister, Rob Nicholson, about whether or not to approve the extradition of Emery to the United States, where he faces years of imprisonment for having sold cannabis seeds, in Vancouver, Canada, via mail order. The Minister’s decision is expected within the next 81 days.

Emery’s opponents, and the U.S. authorities who demanded his arrest in Halifax, have attempted to portray Emery as a profit-motivated drug dealer. Part 1 of McKeever’s documentary will cover the period up to 1990; a period during which Emery was equally active as an advocate of individual freedom, but whose advocacy of individual freedom did not include campaigns concerning the issue of cannabis prohibition.

Being the result of countless hours of research, interviews, writing and editing, the video includes audio, video and textual information that has never been seen in any profile of Emery. Much of the audio and video having been drawn from the archives of Freedom Party of Ontario (with which Emery was active until 1990), it has never before been seen by the general public or media.

What: “The Principle of Pot” (Part 1) – divided into four segments (a playlist will be available)

When: approximately 12:01 AM (EST), Monday, January 18, 2010 (i.e., just after midnight on Sunday)

Where: http://www.youtube.com/paulmckeever (a playlist URL will be made available, and can be embedded on any web site without seeking permission from Paul McKeever to do so)

For further information, contact:

Paul McKeever

Confidential Cell Phone: ***-***-****
e-mail: pm@paulmckeever.ca

Part 1-1: Emery’s birth; early political activity; Ayn Rand and Howard Roark (1979); the Libertarian Party (1980); three publications (1980-1983); Unparty (1981-83); the birth of Freedom Party (1984).

Part 1-2: The No Tax for Pan Am Games campaign (1984); the London garbage strike (1987).

Part 1-3: The campaign against the ban on Sunday retailing 1986-1990); jail (1988).

Part 1-4: The Calendars for Individual Freedom (1987-1989); no to elections / yes to erections (anti-censorship campaigns 1984 and 1989-90); leaving Freedom Party (1990); a new strategy (1990).

This media advisory is being copied to Canada’s government, including Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, to Canada’s Members of Parliament
and to other governmental and non-governmental organizations interested in the matter of Marc Emery, and his possible extradition.

On June 19, 2008, the National Post’s Letters Editor, Paul Russell, posted to the NP blog a letter he had received from a reader, Ross Reynolds. In the letter, Mr. Reynolds asserted that there is no “constitutionally valid” law (i.e., there is no law) prohibiting the possession of marijuana in Canada. Read the story »

Yaron Brook, Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, together with his colleague, Alex Epstein, recently appeared on a local television program “to discuss the roots of the financial meltdown, and why free markets are not to blame.” Before I had watched the video, my initial response to the discussion topic was:

“why free markets are not to blame”…isn’t that the same reason that fairies are not to blame? A is A.

My initial response was misguided, as was Epstein’s. Read the story »