The Demo Site

Help convince the Canadian Justice Minister to NOT EXTRADITE Marc Emery to the USA, then ask the US federal judge to give Marc Emery a very short or non-custodial sentence!


Marc Emery was taken into custody on Monday, September 28th. Marc is being held in Canada until the Justice Minister signs the extradition order to send him to the USA. Tell the Justice Minister to refuse the extradition of Marc Emery!

Canadian Marc Emery has been fighting extradition to the USA and possible life imprisonment since July 2005. In March 2008, the Canadian Government decided to turn down a unique type of plea deal the USA and Marc Emery's lawyer had arranged -- one that required Canadian charges to be laid and the incarceration be in Canada.

In July 2009, Marc's co-accused, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, were sentenced to 2 years probation in Canada. In early September 2009, Marc Emery decided to sign a plea deal for a 5-year sentence in the US federal prison system.

You can read Marc's reasons for taking the plea deal in his blog post "Why I'm Cutting a Deal". Read more about what will likely happen to Marc from this point on by reading Jodie Emery's blog post "Marc Emery Imprisoned: Monday, September 28, Vancouver".

Read news articles and view some videos from the day Marc surrendered into custody here.

HOW TO HELP FREE MARC EMERY:

First of all and most importantly, please be polite and respectful – but very firm – when contacting the following people.

Secondly, strongly emphasize that Marc Emery is a Canadian citizen who never went to the USA and carried out his activities in Canada. If he has broken the law in Canada, he should be tried and sentenced in Canada, not sent to a foreign country to be punished under much harsher laws.

Try to bring up these important points along with the "Facts About Marc Emery" listed below to help you better explain why Marc Emery should not be imprisoned in the USA.

- Vancouver police investigated Marc in 2003 and tried to have charges filed in court, but the Crown refused, so the VPD admitted that the USA picked up the file to get harsh punishment for Marc in the USA. If Marc couldn't be charged in Canada, he should not be charged in America.

- The US District Attorney arranged a plea deal in January 2008 that would allow Marc to serve his time in Canada, as long as the Conservative government laid charges here in Canada... but the government refused. Again, if the government wouldn't charge or punish Marc in Canada, he should not be charged or punished in America.




1) Contact the Justice Minister of Canada, Rob Nicholson, to tell him that you are a voter and you want him to refuse the extradition order for Marc Emery. You must insist that the message be delivered directly to the Justice Minister, and ask for a response too!

Here is a phone script:

"Hello, my name is ________ and I want you to give this message directly to the Justice Minister. I'm calling about Canadian Marc Emery, who is awaiting extradition to the USA for selling marijuana seeds through the mail. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to extradite Marc Emery to the United States. If Marc Emery has broken the law in Canada, he should be charged here in Canada. As a voter, I am asking you to not extradite Marc Emery. Thank you."

Please write a letter and print three copies to mail them directly to his offices. There is no stamp/postage required for mail to the House of Commons address, but stamps are necessary for the other two addresses. Mailing a letter is many, many times more effective than sending an email, so please be sure it gets to the Justice Minister through the mail. We want him to get the message in all three offices!

Honourable Robert Nicholson
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 995-1547
Fax: (613) 992-7910
Email: NichoR@parl.gc.ca

2895 St. Paul Avenue, Unit 11 (Main Office)
Niagara Falls, Ontario
L2J 2L3
Telephone: (905) 353-9590
Fax: (905) 353-9588

200 Garrison Road Unit 13
Fort Erie, Ontario
L2A 5F6
Telephone: (905) 871-9991
Fax: (905) 871-5046




2) Contact the Canadian Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan, and tell him that if Marc Emery applies for a prison transfer from the USA to Canada, that the Minister should approve right away.

Phone: (613) 991-2924
Fax: (613) 954-5186
Mail: 269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0P8
Canada




3) *********THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO!!!
ARRANGE A MEETING WITH YOUR MP AND TELL THEM YOU'LL VOTE ON THIS ISSUE*********

Contact your Member of Parliament in Canada, or your Representative in the US Congress, to let them know about Marc Emery’s situation and why you and thousands of other voters want Marc to be free in his home country Canada.

Canada: http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca
USA: http://www.house.gov




4) Contact Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle, Washington and tell him that he should let Marc Emery return home to Canada with a no-prison sentence instead of the 5-year term in the plea deal.

Mail: Honorable Ricardo S. Martinez
U.S. Courthouse
700 Stewart Street, Suite 13134
Seattle, WA
98101-9906
USA




5) Contact President Barack Obama and tell him that he should pardon Canadian citizen Marc Emery and let him return home to Canada.

Phone: (202) 456-1414 (switchboard) and (202) 456-1111 (comments)
Fax: (202) 456-2461
Mail: The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC
20500
USA




6) Contact the media and express your concern about Marc Emery facing extradition to the USA.

Canada and USA Media Outlets: www.MapInc.org




7) Wear a FREE MARC t-shirt or button.

Shirts, buttons and posters are available in the FREE MARC section of the Cannabis Culture online store (or in Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters store at 307 West Hastings Street in Vancouver, BC)




8) Print and distribute the FREE MARC handout! -- CHECK BACK REGULARLY FOR UPDATED HANDOUTS

***NEW*** Free Marc handbill with Justice Minister phone number (4 per page, double sided)
Download PDF

***NEW*** Free Marc handbill with Justice Minister phone number (professional print file)
Download PDF

"Who Is Marc Emery?" handout (1 per page, double sided)
Download front - Download back




9) Download, print and share the FREE MARC logo.

Make this image into stickers, posters, stencils -- whatever you can come up with to spread the word about Marc Emery and to help free him from prison!









10) Use stencils to paint FREE MARC everywhere.

Create your own, or check back here regularly for an option to buy it from us (we're looking into having them made professionally). Use cardboard or hard plastic, then cut out the shapes you'll be painting. Go here for a stencil image and other new posters.




11) Attend the Prison Vigil outside the jail Marc's in.

There have been people camped out in tents, with signs, flags, information, music, and lots of positive energy. Go here for info. Cars honk all day long! It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- go take part and then start a vigil outside your Member of Parliament's office!




SEND MAIL TO MARC EMERY

Marc is currently at North Fraser pretrial centre. He wants letters that explain what you've done to help free him -- who did you call? What did you say? What else have you done to FREE MARC EMERY? That's what he wants to hear... he wants to know that people are taking up the fight in his absence. Send photos of your rallies and protests, newspaper clippings with your Letters to the paper or articles about him (or anything he might be interested in).

NOTE: Mail is thoroughly inspected so do not send any contraband! You cannot send money, books, music, or anything else but paper letters and non-Polaroid photos to Marc through the mail. No tape, stickers, post-it notes, labels, paper clips, staples, or anything else except paper. In the near future, a list of books Marc wants will be shared so people can send some reading material to him.

Send Marc mail at this address:

Marc Emery
CS #06032080
1451 Kingsway Avenue
Port Coquitlam, BC
V3C 1S2
Canada



FACTS ABOUT MARC EMERY:

DOWNLOAD Marc Emery Fact sheet

• Marc Emery is a Canadian citizen who never went to the USA as a seed seller.

• Marc Emery operated his seed business in Canada at all times, with no American branches or employees.

• Marc Emery declared his income from marijuana seed sales on his income tax, and paid over $580,000 to the Federal and Provincial governments from 1999 to 2005.

• Marc Emery is the leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, a registered political party that has regularly participated in elections.

• Marc Emery has never been arrested or convicted of manufacturing or distributing marijuana in Canada, as he only sold seeds.

• Marc Emery gave away all of the profits from his seed business to drug law reform lobbyists, political parties, global protests and rallies, court litigation, medical marijuana initiatives, drug rehabilitation clinics, and other legitimate legal activities and organizations.

• Marc Emery helped found the United States Marijuana Party, state-level political parties, and international political parties in countries such as Israel and New Zealand.

• Marc Emery has been known as a book seller and activist in Canada for 30 years, fighting against censorship laws and other social issues long before he became a drug law reform activist.

• Marc Emery has been a media figure for 20 years with regards to marijuana and drug law reform. He is very well-known to Canadian, American and international news media organizations.

• Marc Emery operated his business in full transparency and honesty since its inception in 1994, even sending his marijuana seed catalogue inside his magazine "Cannabis Culture" to each Member of Parliament in Canada every two months for years.

• The US Drug Enforcement Administration admitted in a press release from Administrator Karen Tandy that his July 29th, 2005 arrest was based on drug legalization efforts -- a copy of the document can be viewed at http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4685.html --

"Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group -- is a signficant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. His marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine have generated nearly $5 million a year in profits that bolstered his trafficking efforts, but those have gone up in smoke today. Emery and his organization had been designated as one of the Attorney General's most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets -- one of only 46 in the world and the only one from Canada. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

Who is Marc Emery?

Marc Emery is a Canadian businessman and political activist who owns and operates "Cannabis Culture Magazine", "Pot-TV", the "BC Marijuana Party", and "Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters" (previously "BC Marijuana Party Bookstore" and "Hemp BC" before that). Marc also ran "Emery Direct Seeds" in a store in downtown Vancouver BC and through mail-order, for over ten years, with the goal to fund anti-prohibition and pro-marijuana activists and organizations across North America and the world -- a fact that DEA Administrator Karen Tandy crowed about in the press release about Marc Emery's arrest. (Numerous other seed-selling businesses operate in North America, some even on the same block as Marc Emery's businesses today, but they are not seen as high-profile activists, so they are not targeted by the United States Government and law enforcement.)

Marc paid provincial and federal taxes on his income, had no business outlets in the USA, and never went to the USA to conduct seed transactions. Everything was done openly and transparently, because Marc has always been honest and vocal. He's a political party leader and media magnet, always happy to explain how and why he did everything. He spent the proceeds from all sales on ending the drug war in Canada, the USA, and all over the world: he financed numerous political parties, ballot initiatives, election campaigns, court challenges, medical programs, drug treatment centres, legal fees, conferences, organizations, events and more. That's what his mission was, and he even ran in provincial and municipal elections five times as a seed seller, gaining many votes and endless media coverage....Please check out the rest of this extensive article here @ Cannabis Culture.com