Libertarian Party of Canada
For Immediate Release


Block the Extradition of Marc Emery
The War on Drugs is a War on Liberty


August 8, 2005 - Ottawa, Ontario On July 29, the RCMP arrested Marc Emery, Leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party along with fellow activists Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Gregory Williams. These arrests were the result of a U.S. Federal Grand Jury indictment on charges of Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana Seeds and Conspiracy to Engage in Money Laundering. Since Marc Emery is alleged to have sold many of his seeds to U.S. customers, the investigation in Canada was actually led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under the terms of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty

The most disturbing fact is that the U.S. Attorney's Office has filed an extradition request with the Canadian government that all three Canadians be brought to Seattle to stand trial. If convicted in the U.S. on either of the marijuana charges, they could face cruel prison sentences ranging from a minimum of 10 years to life in prison.

Therefore the Libertarian Party of Canada calls upon Canada's Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, to block the extradition of Marc Emery and his associates, and to set them free. We also urge Parliament to narrow the types of crimes that are covered by extradition treaties in order to protect Canadians from legal domination by foreign governments.

Although the sale of cannabis seeds is also illegal in Canada, Marc Emery has not been charged by Canadian authorities, who are well aware that Canada has a medical-marijuana program in which patients can lawfully use marijuana.

U.S. officials have falsely characterized Marc Emery as motivated by greed, but the truth is that, in addition to serving those who are in desperate need of medical marijuana, the proceeds of his seed business have been directed towards political activism and compassionate aid for drug addicts.

It seems clear that Marc Emery was targeted because of his prominence as a political activist and this is another reason why the Minister of Justice should choose to rule against extradition. In these respects the Extradition Act states the following:

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/E-23.01/57313.html#section-44

Quote:
44. (1) The Minister shall refuse to make a surrender order if the Minister is satisfied that
(a) the surrender would be unjust or oppressive having regard to all the relevant circumstances; or
(b) the request for extradition is made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing the person by reason of their race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, language, colour, political opinion, ...


Libertarians believe in the principles of self-ownership and individual liberty. We believe that governments act aggressively when they violate these principles by interfering with an individual's freedom to buy, sell or use drugs such as marijuana for medicinal or other purposes.

We believe that each individual should be free to live as they choose, as long as they do not aggress against the life and property of others. Non-coercive means should be used to discourage the abuse of dangerous drugs instead of the destructive application of the criminal justice system.

That is why we call on Parliament and the people of Canada to not only decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana but to also work towards the abolition of the disastrous policy of drug prohibition, which results in increased criminal activity and the unjust imprisonment of peaceful citizens.

The Libertarian Party of Canada is dedicated to the cause of personal and economic freedom for all Canadians. We believe that individual liberty is a necessary condition for a peaceful and prosperous society.

We welcome enquiries from all Canadians who wish to aid our cause.

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Contact Information

Jean-Serge Brisson
Leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada
ep523@freenet.carleton.ca
Work: (613) 443-5423


Alan Mercer
Media Relations Officer
amercer@libertarian.on.ca

That is a very powerful and magnificent statement by the Libertarian Party of Canada!!

I especially like this diddy;

Quote:

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We also urge Parliament to narrow the types of crimes that are covered by extradition treaties in order to protect Canadians from legal domination by foreign governments.

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They weren't so willing to protect us from US domination in 2003 when I got into a series of debates with the leadership. One of the guys, now gone, even argued that Marc should be jailed and now runs a website pretty much dedicated to that proposition. Small "l" libertarianism is a good thing, the parties usually are not.

A friend of mine attended a Libertarian conference this weekend that Marc was supposed to be at. He was pretty bummed Marc couldn't make it.

By the way, he had an awesome time.

Libertarians are all about unfettered freedom, that means you are welcome to smoke pot as much as you want as long as it doesnt bother someone else, that also means you can sell poison to anyone as long as noone complains.

Libertarians want to make everything a commodity, they see no social obligation of themselves or government except to see that the "machine" can keep running.

This article has lots of words that make us feel that libertarians share our values, they dont, libertarians hold the dollar in higher regard then even the most nutball conservative, conservatives are anti-pot because of the twisted values they hold, libertarians hold NO values except that of the dollar, I would trust a conservative over a libertarian any day.

So thanks libertarian party for the nice words, I hope you help our cause but it will be a cold day in hell before I ever vote for one of your amoral politicians.

ArghMonkey


I don't owe you or anyone else on this planet 1 second of my life. I have no "social obligation" to the socialists who want to plunder my wealth by abusing the purpose of the law.

And who told you we want to see the machine keep running?

Libertarians would end special privilidges doled out to corporations just as quickly as libertarians would end the legal clout of Unionism of any sort including the doctors union and the lawyers union.

Sice you are speaking from a socialists point of view and you are at a libertarians webpage...just exactly what are "our values?"

The values of theieve are the values of socialist. Taking money from people who earned it to give to your favored friends instead of Paul Martin's or Stephen Harpers favored friends?

Libertarians understand free-market economics a hell of a lot better than socialists thats for sure.

The state is but one instituion. There is the church and there is the family. That's where our true values in life are found.

The state is not compassion, the state is not justice, the state is raw power to coerce. That is it that is all.

Then do yourself a favor ArghMonkey, learn the difference between immoral amoral and moral before you pass judgement. I accpet that Libertarians are amoral if you accpet that libertarians consider the plunder that underlies socialism is immoral.

For short, moral means right, amoral means neither right nor wrong and immoral means evil.

So thanks for all those compliments.

But like I said now that you have found out that this site is actually owned by a libertarian, Marc Emery, does that change your mind at all or is Marc just another one of those person concerned about nothing except the almighty buck as you alledged?

Well first off even I can hold some libertarian ideas, as I do hold some socialist ideas but I dont necessarily consider myself socialist, not sure why you jumped to that conclusion.

Whatever Marc Emery is he isent my idol, I happen to like the guy but really I dont make my decisions on what he likes or dislikes, we share the plight of marijuana smokers, im not switching to pepsi if he says its his favourite drink.

I happen to have libertarians in my family, people I love follow your same line of thinking, I still know they are very wrong.

The wild west was a very libertarian place, if there was a shot out and noone called the cops nothing happened to the gunman, thats libertarian paradise and it would in effect be a total nightmare for most people in our society, its really a different way of saying "survival of the fittest", if you pay to have a home built and the contractor cheats here and there and you only notice a few years later Ooops sorry, theres no BBB to complain to, if your neighbour wants to own 100 guns and his son invites your son over to play soccer and in that playtime your son accidentaly gets shot you can go to the police and they might charge the man but there will be no restrictions made on who owns guns or how many, thats anti-libertarian.

For anyone wanting to see real libertarian ideas in action go to the middle east, its like one giant tribe, many places have minimal police involvement (the military mostly sets up checkpoints around the city).

Libertarians, like conservatives, feel that everyone wants their money, thats really the most important thing to most libertarians, its really the basis for their entire belief system "but would they be able to take my money? DAMN, ok im against that then", sorry but we dont live in tribes anymore, as a species we realized that sharing and being fair actually makes all of us much stronger, I have an obligation to look after the weakest of our society, we might forget that in our materialistic, ME ME ME society but its the truth, we are social animals and if being human means anything it should mean that we have a vested interest in raising the standards of life for ALL humans.

Communism didnt work because of corruption and because humans are also very greedy, libertarianism would be just as bad if not worst because of corruption and because humans are also very greedy.

For anyone who thinks libertarianism is a great "concept" they should check out the middle east, on a good day many of us would call it chaotic, frightening and like the wild west and on a bad day we would jump right back on the plane and come back to a world that upholds at the least a modicum of values that reflect its people.

Libertarians would get rid of welfare, if your dying in the streets and noone drops some nickels in your hat, sorry buddy, your dying there, libertarians would get rid of universal health care "what Jimmy? your sick and cant pay the bills? put some robatussin on that", libertarians have no problem with businesses that would exploit people, if you piss off your boss, your fired, no union, no UI, no appeal, no lunchbreaks, the boss would suddenly become the allmighty dictator, the idea being that in a libertarian society there would be many jobs and you could just leave and work elsewhere, its a fairy tale. libertarians would destroy public education, all private education now and if you cant pay guess what? your 15 year old is getting a shitty education and going to work as a ditch digger, theres more but suffice to say that libertarians only want what they want and to hell with the rest of the world as long as they keep what they perceive to be "their money".

Dangerous, flawed thinking and yes, it is completely amoral.

Thankfully people still care for others and still have values and I dont plan to see libertarianism at any point in my life and hopefully in my future childrens lives.

You're awfully misguided as to what libertarianism is, but so be it.

The old west was not quite as bad as you make it out to be and needless to say the movies were not true to live.

Women tamed the wild west not the law.

Libertariaism means survival and prosperity for everybody. America being living proof of that too.

And you are very mistaken about no BBB to complain to.

The BBB is a voluntary organization. Freedom of association is one of the libertarian tenets. Why would we object to buisness self policing. It's like consumers magazine rating electronics instead of a government sticker.

Where's the beef?

Your competition keeps you honest.

Capitalism is a contract sport. Any disputes settle them in court. So if you contract for a house to be built and all the materials and expectations are in writing I can't see why there would be no compensation.

Guns are tools and the pitchforks of old were very dangerous too. In my Grandpa house there were three or four firearms. Everybody I grew up with in St. Laurent Mb had a firearm in the 60's. I was shooting 22's when I was five or six. So safety was ingrained into the culture. Farm accidents killed more kids than firearms. How many people did your Grandpa shoot? At least he could defend himself if trouble arose. Grandpa was not at the mercy of criminals who all have guns anyway.

Besides that, the idea of the right to bear arms is that the people will have the means to change out the government if it should one day grow too tyranical.

No one said liberty is cheap .....there will be senseless killing in all politcal systems. I need not remind you that the state was responsible for over 120 million bodies in the last century alone. The wild west pales in comparrision. It is the state that does all the killing. Individuals are responsible for relatively few bodies.

Theocracies are not "libertarian" by any stretch of the imagination.

There are in fact no capitalist contries on the face of the Earth because the idea has never been tried. We live in a "mixed" economy...Keynesian economics rules. President Bush is prionting up money. For every dollar he prints he debases the value of all the other dollars already in circulation. Prices are going up and wages are staying down. Inflation is what it is called.

Sharing is all fine and dandy. It's not sharing when guns are put in peoplkes back and they are told they must support your charity...

Next people must be able to support themselves before they can help other people.

Capitalism does not pretend to solve the world social probnlems.

It is a way of getting goods to your doorstep. Thats it that's all. The Church and the family exist for social intercource and charity purposes.

Socialism is another way of getting goods produced. socialism is inferior in delivering goods. The Soviet Union proved that.

So in a liberal society more gets accomplished because it is all done through voluntary coopertaionm rather than at the point of a gun. '

The boss this the boss that....


Labor is a scarcity. In a libertarian would there would be a chronic over-employment. Not enough labor....buisness wouldn't be able to find all the people they need...wages would rise.....

Capitalism is the road to prosperity for all. Welfare is a life of dependant slavery. People are very genreous and the bums around here in Winnipeg do well enough. Welfare encourages idelness.

And without incorporation rights, libertarians would neither support nor hinder buisness. That is not the duty of the state.

Public education like the D.A.R.E. program? Makes it obvious the schools are being used for nefarious purposes right now. The Public schools are instilling a love of state in our children and lo and behold the Nation is turning into a ,police state right before your eyes. All politcal ideologies love the public schools for their ability to indoctrinate.

Get rid of them and private schools can teach the threee r's and parents can socialize their own childre....there is a reason lots of people choose homeschooling.

So what you are wishing for in rejecting the ideology of capitalism and the classic liberal politcal ideology is slavery for yourself and your children.

I rest you assured that libertarians have just as much if not more compassion for our fellow human beings.