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Vancouver marijuana activist Marc Emery denied transfer to Canada
By admin | April 17, 2011
http://www.straight.com/article-387728/vancouver/vancouver-marijuana-activist-marc-emery-denied-transfer-canada
By Yolande Cole, April 15, 2011
Marijuana activist Marc Emery has been denied a request to be transferred to Canada to serve the remainder of his prison sentence, according to his wife Jodie Emery.
“He called me and said that he got a letter from the Canadian consulate, saying that they had been informed by the U.S. government that Marc’s transfer application has been refused, on the grounds of the seriousness of the offence and law enforcement concerns,” she told the Straight by phone today (April 15).
She said she believes the “seriousness of the offence” argument relates to the U.S. Attorney General’s designation of her husband as the most wanted drug trafficking kingpin from Canada in a press release sent out the day of his arrest.
“Marc has never dealt in drugs, he only sold seeds and paid taxes and all the rest… but I think that’s pretty damning to say that they’re still willing to stick by the idea that Marc is a threat and shouldn’t be returned to Canada,” she said.
The transfer application can’t be made again for two years, she noted.
The marijuana activist was sentenced to five years in prison on September 2010 for selling marijuana seeds. He pleaded guilty in May 2010 to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and was extradited to the U.S.
His wife added the Conservative government signed off on his extradition on May 10, 2010.
“They’re responsible for having sent him down there, to face this sentence, which really is so outrageous and far more punitive than selling seeds and being a political activist should warrant,” she said.
The activist known as the “Prince of Pot” is currently in a transfer facility in Oklahoma City and is waiting to be sent to a facility in Mississippi.
Emery said her husband was “devastated” by the news.
“He just hopes that I’m going to be ok, and of course I just hope that he’ll be ok, and we’re going to stick through this together no matter what happens,” she said.
“It’s certainly heartbreaking, to say the least,” she added.
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