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Rob's Note: Another example of how national sovereignty is being eroded by international corporate-friendly agreements and US imperial muscle. Thanks to Ian Baldwin for sending this story along.
Loss of Canadian Sovereignty : US Interference in Canadian Criminal Law and Canadian Policy in the arrest of Marc Emery, advocate for Legalization of Marijuana
by Connie Fogal, Leader Canadian Action Party...July 31, 2005
The arrest of Marc Emery and two others on July 29, 2005 in Canada to
serve the questionable USA War On Drugs is a wake up call for
Canadians. Marc Emery is a serious activist promoting the legalization of Marijuana use in Canada. The significance for Canadians of his arrest is not about anyone's personal attitude to the legalization of marijuana. The significance speaks to the core of being Canadian, being a sovereign nation, being able to make decisions we choose in our interest, in our own time, on our own terms.
Under the Canada Elections Act Marc Emery is the leader of a
registered federal political party in Canada which has as its only
platform that mission- to legalize the use of "pot." As a registered partyin Canada, the Marijuana Party is part of the legitimate opposition forcesof government.
Since its inception, that party has been garnering more and more votes at
every federal election. It is a valid, viable electoral option as the
alternative choice for many Canadians. Our Supreme Court of
Canada sanctioned that parties existence along with all other alternative
parties in Canada. In Figueroa v Canada (Attorney General) 2003 SCC 37 it
said
"The ability of a party to make a valuable contribution is not dependent
upon its capacity to offer the electorate a genuine government option.
Political parties... act as a vehicle for the participation of individual
citizens in the political life of the country. ...Marginal or regional
parties tend to raise issues not adopted by national parties. Political
parties provide individual citizens with an opportunity to express an
opinion on the policy and functioning of government. Each vote in support
of a party increases the likelihood that its platform will be taken into
account by those who implement policy, and votes for parties with fewer
than 50 candidates are an integral component of a vital and dynamic
democracy. "
Marc Emery and his party are activists working legally to inform and shape
public opinion and Canadian law. That is what being a citizen in a free and
independent country is all about. That is the core and essence of
sovereignty and liberty.
The July 29 , 2005 arrest of Marc Emery and others arose out of U.S.
demands and pressure asserted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration on Canada as a result of international treaties. In 1985
Canada created an act called The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal
Matters Act that puts effect to Canadian cooperation in a number of
treaties dealing with criminal law.
Here is a clear classic example of how international agreements are
stealing away from Canadians our own protection created by our forefathers
for us in our own Constitution. It should not be possible for a foreign
jurisdiction to have the clout to cause our own police to arrest Canadians
in our own country, even under the protection of extradition hearings, for
any matters except those of real internationally heinous matters or crimes
against humanity.
It is more than time to look at what is happening in our country and
see the loss of our own power as a result of international arrangements
that are incrementally killing us!!! It is more than time to say "No
More!" It is more than time to get out of the agreements that are really
hurting us! It is more than time to elect Members of Parliament who are pro
Canadian, not anti Canadian!
We must remember that international treaties are no longer about making
life better for the masses of people in the world. Globalization now is
about eliminating the power of sovereign people to make decision in their
interest whenever those interests will interfere with the global agenda of
greed and global power in the control and interest of an elite few. Thanks
to the work of activists around the world we now know that the new global
rules require that every government cooperating in globalization must
eventually eliminate all its local laws that interfere with the
elite's global agenda. Such governments are enemies of their own people.
When the people are asked, they say no when they understand the
implications. Our Canadian example is the defeat of the Charlottetown
Accord which would have altered our Constitution such as to eliminate many
rights of the citizens. The recent French and Dutch rejection of the
European Union Constitution is another example of the people saying
no. Many of the other EU countries were not given a vote on the issue.
Their governments simply committed the people to the EU Constitution. That
constitution was aimed at establishing the dominance of the market place;
that is, the requirement of EU nations to erode their social programs and
instead make laws to favor the corporate profits before people.
So it is all about an ethos for living. Do we want a world that permits a
nation of people to make their own decision for their own interest? Or do
we want a world where nations, hence the people, are not allowed to make
their own choices, and punished if they try??
It is noteworthy that the US flagrantly violates international accords when
it suits them, like the Kyoto Accord, or paying its financial dues to the
United Nations, or closing the border to healthy Canadian beef . The most
heinous violation is its current actions in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where
it detains and tortures people the USA defines as terrorists. There they
violate international laws that protect prisoners of war from torture
saying those international protections do not apply because the detainees
are not prisoners of war -never mind that they are from Iraq or Afghanistan
where the US has created war.
Much has been written about the hypocrisy and complicity of the USA in
international drug trafficking and the failure in its "war on drugs."
Afghanistan had almost put an end to the production and trade of poppy seed
for the drug trade of opium. Since the US invasion and attack on
Afghanistan and interference in their sovereignty, the opium trade in
Afghanistan is flourishing.
Back to Marc Emery and marijuana and the long arm of the USA. Emery is
charged in absentia in the USA with drug related charges including
conspiring to distribute marihuana seeds for which the penalty is a life
sentence in a US jail if convicted. Emery has been a marijuana activist in
Canada for years, and occasionally charged and convicted where he has
violated existing Canadian law. However, it is not an uncommon practice
for Canadian police to go easy on matters that are affected by social
policy and change in process. That is our Canadian way.
The whole issue of legal uses of marijuana for medicinal purposes as a
painkiller in chronic disease is already implemented. The gradual
changes in Canadian law over possession vs trafficking has been going on
for years. Our federal government is close to making some significant
changes in the law for Canadians as a result of political pressure from the
public and advocates like Marc Emery. The U.S. does not like that.
The US has made it very clear they are not happy with the Canadian
direction on marijuana law. Their laws hold marijuana to be a dangerous
drug equal to heroin or opium. Our law does not. This attack on Emery is
the flexing of US muscle telling Canadians that we have to approach the
marijuana issue their way. The international arrangements in place have
given the US a legal route into their attack on Emery and hence on every
Canadian. The recent accord between Bush, Martin, and Fox to implement a
common North American Union by 2010 under US domination eliminating the
distinct national status of Canada, Mexico and the USA is also in play
here.
It is wrong for the US way to be dumped on and used against Canadians. It
is certainly wrong for our country to cooperate with any regime in such a
way as to subject Canadians to punishment in a foreign regime that exceeds
the punishment applied in Canada for a marijuana offence. It is
particularly offensive for our government to be cooperating with another
regime to subject Canadians to criminal charges for actions that are not
an offence in Canada, or for actions that may have been an offence but are
in policy process of eliminating the offence. Are we sovereign or not??!
Canadians are entitled to be protected from the over-reach of any foreign
jurisdiction, including the USA. It is time Canadians put the reigns on
our government's complicity with the unification of North America into one
union under US dominance and control. It is time our government ceased its
endless cow-towing to Canada's corporate elite of anti Canadians,
the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, who are leading the charge in
Canada to unify North America in their interests.
From its inception in 1997 the Canadian Action Party has a commitment to
act on taking back the sovereignty of Canada, to living up to the citizen
protections that exist in our Canadian Constitution. We are not content to
give just lip service to the warnings and information coming from think
tanks like the Center for Canadian Policy Alternatives, or nonprofit
organizations like the Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee, the Council
of Canadians, or from Canadian lawyers like Rocco Galati, and Canadian
academics like Michel Chossudovsky, William Krehm, Mel Hurtig, Naomi Klein,
Murray Dobbin, Linda McQuaig. We say it is time to take back our country
for our own people. It is time to rid ourselves of the clout of the anti
Canadians.
The Canadian Action Party demands a national referendum to decide if we
want Canada to end as an entity, and to decide if we want to be a part of
a common union of North America under US control. We say it is tantamount
to treason for national leaders and bureaucracy and the CEOs of major
Canadian corporations to be setting in process the demise of Canada
without the knowledge and consent of Canadians.
Constance (Connie ) Fogal , Leader, Canadian Action Party.
CANADIAN ACTION PARTY/ PARTI ACTION CANADIENNE
#385-916 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V5Z1K7
Tel: (604) 708 -3372 Fax: (604) 872 -1504
E-Mail: info@canadianactionparty.ca or contact the leader
at conniefogal@telus.net or tel (604) 872- 2128
www.canadianactionparty.ca
---------------------------------
Connie Fogal, Leader ,Canadian Action Party/ parti action Canadienne
Tel: (604)872 2128; or (604) 708 3372
(FAX: 604) 872 -1504
E-MAIL conniefogal@telus.net
Canadian ActionParty Head office : # 385- 916 West Broadway, Vancouver BC,
V521K7; e mail: info@canadianactionparty.ca
.................................
"The world is not, in fact, ruled by global corporations. It is ruled by
the global financial system." David Korten
.................................
"The ability of a party to make a valuable contribution is not dependent
upon its capacity to offer the electorate a genuine government option.
Political parties... act as a vehicle for the participation of individual
citizens in the political life of the country. ...Marginal or regional
parties tend to raise issues not adopted by national parties. Political
parties provide individual citizens with an opportunity to express an
opinion on the policy and functioning of government. Each vote in support
of a party increases the likelihood that its platform will be taken into
account by those who implement policy, and votes for parties with fewer
than 50 candidates are an integral component of a vital and dynamic
democracy. " Figueroa v Canada (Attorney General) 2003 SCC 37
-----------------------------------
"Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor
security"...Benjamin Franklin
..................................
"The constitution of Canada does not belong either to Parliament, or to the
Legislatures; it belongs to the country and it is there that the citizens
of the country will find the protection of the rights to which they are
entitled" Supreme Court of Canada A.G. of Nova Scotia and A.G. of Canada,
S.C.R. 1951 pp 32
---------------------------------
Connie Fogal, Leader ,Canadian Action Party/ parti action Canadienne
Tel: (604)872 2128; or (604) 708 3372
(FAX: 604) 872 -1504
E-MAIL conniefogal@telus.net
Canadian ActionParty Head office : # 385- 916 West Broadway, Vancouver BC,
V521K7; e mail: info@canadianactionparty.ca
.................................
"The world is not, in fact, ruled by global corporations. It is ruled by
the global financial system." David Korten
.................................
"The ability of a party to make a valuable contribution is not dependent
upon its capacity to offer the electorate a genuine government option.
Political parties... act as a vehicle for the participation of individual
citizens in the political life of the country. ...Marginal or regional
parties tend to raise issues not adopted by national parties. Political
parties provide individual citizens with an opportunity to express an
opinion on the policy and functioning of government. Each vote in support
of a party increases the likelihood that its platform will be taken into
account by those who implement policy, and votes for parties with fewer
than 50 candidates are an integral component of a vital and dynamic
democracy. " Figueroa v Canada (Attorney General) 2003 SCC 37
-----------------------------------
"Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor
security"...Benjamin Franklin
..................................
"The constitution of Canada does not belong either to Parliament, or to the
Legislatures; it belongs to the country and it is there that the citizens
of the country will find the protection of the rights to which they are
entitled" Supreme Court of Canada A.G. of Nova Scotia and A.G. of Canada,
S.C.R. 1951 pp 32