Cornies, Coren, and the Conservatives: all Sun, no light

Last Monday, (May 10, 2010), Canada’s Conservative Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, decided to surrender Canadian activist and publisher Marc Emery for extradition to the USA. Emery faces no charges in Canada, but is wanted by the USA for having sold cannabis seeds to Americans via Canada Post. The decision has led to anti-Conservative outrage and protests across the country, and major newspapers have covered the developments. Perhaps most noteworthy, Canada’s national Globe and Mail newspaper reported Thursday that a group opposing the Conservatives’ decision to extradite Emery occupied the riding office of Conservative MP James Moore, where a Canadian licensed to use marijuana for medical reasons lawfully rolled joints on Moore’s desk, in protest. The Globe and Mail newspaper even posted a video of the event to its website. Read more

Conservatives' Emery Extradition Shocks the Conscience of the Nation

Canada’s Justice Minister, Conservative MP Rob Nicholson (member for the riding of Niagara Falls) today decided to surrender Canadian citizen Marc Emery for extradition to the United States. Arrested on Canadian soil in 2005, and on bail since then, Emery is wanted by America for having sold cannabis seeds to Americans and others around the world via Canada post between 1998 and 2005.

Although selling cannabis seeds is technically illegal in Canada, Canadian authorities have rarely ever charged any of the numerous seed sellers doing business in Canada, in broad daylight. And the few that have been charged – including Emery – have received only small fines (in the $200 range) or community service as a sentence. Nicholson’s surrender of Emery was unconditional, and – though he was authorized by Canada’s Extradition Act to seek assurances that Emery would not be prosecuted except for the less serious offenses to which he has already agreed to plead guilty – Nicholson shockingly chose not to do so. Read more

Harper Government Faces Sovereignty Test Monday

Canada’s federal Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, has until 4:00 PM on Monday, May 10, 2010, to decide whether or not to grant an American request that Canadian individual freedom activist and publisher Marc Emery be extradited to the USA. Emery has been on bail since November of 2009, while awaiting a decision by the Justice Minister. Because Nicholson still has made no decision, Emery will attend court again tomorrow at 9:00 AM will request an extension of his bail unless Nicholson has made a decision by 4:00 PM. The Justice Minister’s lawyers may also attend court tomorrow to request an extension of the time he is permitted (by Canada’s Extradition Act) to make the decision. If extradited, Emery faces 5 years hard time in a US federal prison, a sentence that – by Canadian standards – would be a cruel and unusual punishment. Read more

Harper Answers Prohibition Question on YouTube

Thousands of YouTube.com viewers posted their questions, and voted upon them, in anticipation of watching Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, answer them last night on the popular video sharing site. But the popularity of one question far exceeded the rest. Here’s the question:

A majority of Canadians, when polled, say they believe alcohol should be illegal, just like marijuana. Why don’t you start a war on alcohol and focus on non-violent criminals?

Here is Harper’s answer: Read more

Harper Faces Cannabis Legalization Demands Monday, Tuesday

The issue of recreational cannabis legalization will jump to the front of the queue of issues facing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper this coming week. As reported in the Straight.com last week, elected members Canada’s House of Commons, from all three non-secessionist political parties having seats in Canada’s Parliament (Conservative, Liberal, and NDP), will deliver petitions signed by tens of thousands of Canadians demanding that Canada’s Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson (Conservative), deny a request to extradite Marc Emery to the U.S.A.. Emery, a Canadian citizen and resident of Vancouver, has been charged not under any Canadian law but under U.S. federal laws for selling cannabis seeds to Americans via mail order. Also, as reported in this blog last Thursday, March 11, 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accepted google.com’s request to answer the most popular questions put to him by users of YouTube.com this coming Tuesday, March 16, 2010. As I explain below, each of these events ties the PM and his government to the rails in front of an oncoming, smoke-puffing cannabis steam train; a peace train face to face with America’s war on drugs. Read more

Harper's Youtube Political Dilemma: Cannabis Legalization

“It sounded like a good idea at the time”. I fully expect those to be the words beginning to thrum in the mind of Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, following his announced acceptance of Google’s offer to stream his response to the throne speech today, and to answer YouTubers’ questions on YouTube next Tuesday, March 16th. It is a decision that has put him in an uncomfortable spot with respect to the issue of marijuana legalization. Read more

Toronto's 2015 Pan Am Games to Cost Taxpayers $11.6B?

In August of 2009, members of Freedom Party of Ontario (an duly registered political party in the Province of Ontario, Canada, of which I am currently leader) commenced a non-partisan No Tax for Pan Am campaign: Yes to the Games, No to using tax revenues to pay for the games. The campaign got a fair bit of attention (see the official web site: www.notaxforpanam.com ) but time and budget limitations limited the campaign’s reach/effectiveness. Another factor: a door to door campaign was made infeasible by the bid committee’s increasing of the geographic area occupied by the games. Freedom Party having defeated London, Ontario’s 1984 bid for the 1991 Pan Am Games, the bid committee for the Toronto 2015 games (led by 80’s era Liberal MPP David Peterson, who was also Premier in the late 1980s) spread the venues across towns spanning over 100 kilometres. Read more

Freedom School (blog edition) No. 1 – "Are free markets to blame?"

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 more

"The P.O.P": A New Movie by Paul McKeever (trailer)

In the coming weeks, I will be releasing a full-length film (a documentary), the ‘code-name’ of which is “The P.O.P.”. It features the last three decades of the political activities of Marc Emery, who is these days most widely recognized as Canada’s “Prince of Pot” (a titled conferred upon him by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the mid-nineties, and popularized by CNN in 1997. I today released a trailer for the film (see below). If you don’t want to miss it when it is released, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel: the movie will be available on YouTube. You can also check back here periodically, or sign-up (on the main page of my blog) to receive updates via e-mail. Read more

The Right Economic Direction for Ontario's Government

Over at the National Post’s “Full Comment” blog today , the Post is doing its darnedest to prop up Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leader Tim Hudak as someone who…is known to exist. In the second of two National Post op-eds in (has it been?) as many weeks, Hudak resorts to the tactic of criticizing the other guy but offering nothing unequivocal or unambiguous as an alternative. In the midst of a much-deserved bashing of the Liberals, the best (and only thing) Hudak can offer, in terms of an alternative is this: Read more

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