Irwin Cotler is deceptively using the thin hope of a downward departure from the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines of ten years to life for helping to water some medical cannabis plants in California as his main reason for deporting Renee Boje. He is lying and he knows it. It IS "shocking to the conscience" according to the Canadian charter, and he knows it. Just like this is:


See this article:
http://www.americanvoice2004.org/askdave/10askdave.html

A quote from the article:

Quote:

---

In Minnesota, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson denied a motion for downward departure but angrily added, “The day of the downward departure is past. Congress and the Attorney General have instituted policies designed to intimidate and threaten judges into refusing to depart downward and those policies are working…The Court is intimidated, and the Court is scared to depart.”[11]

---

Here is another paragraph below from page 12 of Irwin Cotler's letter.


When he writes "As set out above" in the above quote he is referring to his previous deception from page 9:


So Cotler's whole reasoning in saying that this is not "shocking to the conscience" according to the Canadian Charter is the above deceptive quote.

This is why he is trying to railroad this through in 24 hours. To keep people from mobilizing the press and the media, and so that the US corporatist control of the Liberal Party is not challenged or exposed.

Renee Boje
June 16, 2005

The Minister of Justice of Canada, Irwin Cotler, has released his decision regarding the surrender of Ms. Boje to the United States of America. The Minister considered submissions made on behalf of Ms. Boje and determined that he has not found a basis upon which to refuse her surrender, and has therefore signed warrants ordering that Ms. Boje be surrendered to the United States of America to stand trial.

We are now in a position to seek a judicial review of this decision and will file an application in the British Columbia Court of Appeal to that effect immediately. Because the terms of recognizance require that Ms. Boje surrender herself into custody upon release of decision made by the Minister of Justice, she will need to do so, and we will be making an application for her release on bail. The Crown is not opposing our application. We expect that the application will be heard tomorrow June 17, 2005, at 9:30 am.

Sarah J. Rauch
Barrister & Solicitor
Conroy & Company
2459 Pauline St.

Abbotsford, BC

V2S 3S1

ph: 604-852-5110

toll-free 1-877-852-5110

fax: 604-859-3361

If possible, can someone convert this .pdf to an electronic text doc or use OCR to do so?
Would be very helpful.

J

I do not know how to use OCR to convert the photocopied Irwin Cotler letter found here in PDF form:
http://www.americanmarijuana.org/boje
http://www.streamload.com/JodieGR/boje.pdf


The letter is 19 pages long and would take forever to load it in gif or jpg form on a forum page for someone using dialup access.

If anybody is having problems viewing the PDF file you might try uninstalling Acrobat Reader, and then installing the latest version. This often works on my machine when programs stop working. I download PDF files fully, and then click them to get Acrobat Reader to view them.

I have better luck this way. Better than trying to view PDF files within my browser using Acrobat Reader plugins. That requires ActiveX, and ActiveX is very unsecure and a major entry point for malware, bugs, and problems in general.

Sara's letter seems hopeful!!

Decision available at: http://www.americanmarijuana.org/boje
In a heartless decision, and unlike 2 preceding Justice Ministers, Irwin Cotler released a negative decision yesterday in the Boje Extradition case.
Renee Boje, who is married to a Canadian citizen and is the mother of a Canadian son, is being sent back to US authorities to serve a ten year mandatory minimum to life sentence for her involvement in a medical marijuana growing operation in California, shortly after the state of California legalized marijuana for medical purposes.

Mr. Cotler, a purported champion of human rights, ignored evidence that Ms.
Boje would be subject to cruel and unusual punishment and treatment at the hands of US federal authorities. Mr. Cotler also ignored the fact that Ms.
Boje will be prevented from arguing that her actions were legal under California law and that the marijuana being grown was for medical purposes.
Finally, the decision fails to even mention the recent US Supreme Court decision allowing federal prosecutions against persons who were legally entitled to grow marijuana under state law and the US government rhetoric in the wake of that decision expressly claiming that marijuana had no medical value.

Renee Boje's trials and tribulations began after California medical marijuana activist and cancer patient Todd McCormick was arrested growing thousands of cannabis plants in a rented Bel Air home in the summer of 1997.
Inspired by the recent passage of Proposition 215 that effectively legalized medical marijuana in the state, McCormick began growing the plants as part of his research for a book he was working on, "How to Grow Medical Marijuana."

Renee was initially arrested along with a number of other people on the premises, but her charges were later dropped. In 1998, Renee's lawyer advised her that the charges against her were about to be reinstated and recommended that she leave the US. Renee relocated to the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and eventually filed for refugee status. Renee offered to return to the US and stand trial if the former US Attorney General Janet Reno would drop the charges against co-defendant Peter McWilliams, who was dying of AIDS. Tragically, the US Federal authorities denied Peter his legal right to use medical marijuana, a proven powerful anti-nauseant, and Peter died alone in his apartment from choking on his own vomit.

The other defendant, cancer survivor Todd McCormick, was convicted and spent
5 years in Federal Prison without access to the only medicine which eased his pain from his medical condition. McCormick was forced to plead guilty in order to avoid a possible life sentence and so that he might pursue an appeal of the court decision that refused to allow him to introduce evidence of his medical need for marijuana(the appeal was unsuccessful and US defendants are not even entitled to bring evidence of medical need or use when defending federal charges).

Ignoring the glaring differences between Canadian and US law, Irwin Cotler has rendered a decision that has devastated Mrs. Boje and her Canadian family. With the current ban on all things marijuana related from the US, Boje's Canadian husband, who has no criminal record, cannot even travel into America purely based on his association with cannabis activism and his wife's high profile case. If Renee is extradited, she will be effectively cut off from her family, based solely on their political and religious beliefs.


Mrs Boje, her husband Chris Bennett and son Shiva will be appearing at the BC Supreme Court House, 800 West Smithe St at 8:30 am to surrender herself to the authorities, the decision will be read in court at 9:30 am and the Boje family and their lawyer hope to see bail granted while they challenge this unjust and devastating decision.

Contact: Chris Bennett
work (604)682-0039
home (604)929-7966

Attorney Sarah Roach (assisting Her attorney John Conroy while he is out of
town)
1-604-852-5110 (in Abbottsford)

Decision available at: http://www.americanmarijuana.org/boje

I'm new to the forums and just wanted to say I'll keep Chris,Renee their families and friends in my prayers and thoughts. For this must be a devastating time for them, I really hope all goes well. Peace.

I am sorry to hear the bad news.

I really hate to dampen spirits here but I would not put too much stock in a judical review.

I'm sure Renee and Chris have both thought long and hard about this moment.

The idea to "run for your life" must of crossed your minds again.

Find somewhere on Earth with no American extradition laws.


Argentina or Peru?

Anyone else have any ideas?

I think they would get tired of hanging out in people's basements.

There is the last ditch resort of asking the church for sanctuary.

I have more faith in the church than the state and I'm an atheist!

It truly is a dark day.. I don't know Renee, but I feel for her and her family. This war is going to break up yet another family, it's truly shameful. America, hang your head in shame!

http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/about/human_rights_act-en.asp
Do these guys at Canada's Human Rights commission are of any use?

Canadian Human Rights Act




Canadian Human Rights Act


By world standards, Canada is a country that respects and protects its citizens' human rights. In 1977, Parliament passed the Canadian Human Rights Act. The Commission began its work one year later. The purpose of the Act is to ensure equality of opportunity and freedom from discrimination in federal jurisdiction.

The idea behind the Act is that people should not be placed at a disadvantage simply because of their age, sex, race or any other ground covered by the Act. That is discrimination and is against the law.

Who is Protected by the Act? Who is Governed by It?

The Canadian Human Rights Act protects anyone living in Canada against discrimination in or by:

Federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations
Chartered banks
Airlines
Television and radio stations
Interprovincial communications and telephone companies
Buses and railways that travel between provinces
First Nations
Other federally regulated industries, such as certain mining operations.

The provinces and territories have similar laws forbidding discrimination in their own jurisdictions.