Pubdate: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 Source: Belleville News EMC (CN ON) Copyright: Metrolands2014 Contact: http://www.insidebelleville.com/bellevilleregion/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5267 Author: Alan Coxwell ANOTHER BIRTHDAY IN AN AMERICAN PRISON FOR THIS CANADIAN Today, February 13, 2014, is Marc Emery's 56th birthday. He is spending this birthday as a Canadian citizen in a small cement box decorated with iron bars in an American prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Marc is a political prisoner who was put there through a collusion between the Harper government and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the United States of America. As an outspoken proponent for the legalization of marijuana, to the tune of contributing over $4 million to the cause worldwide, they wanted him silenced. So they threw him into an American prison for five years. The facts are that the American prosecutor in Marc's case has now publicly stated he is in favour of legalization of marijuana. Washington and Colorado citizens have voted to legalize marijuana and authorities in those two states have recently done so. Last summer the Justice Department of the United States signed release papers which would allow Marc to return to Canada to serve the rest of his sentence near his wife and family. Stephen Harper refuses to sign it on behalf of Canada. Thus Marc stays in an American prison for his birthday again in 2014. This situation makes me very ashamed to be a Canadian. It displays the depths of cruelty to which our Prime Minister is willing to descend in order to force his totally warped world view on the rest of us. His ignorance about the beneficial qualities of this natural plant and its potential to assist mankind on many fronts is truly breathtaking. When Justin Trudeau announced he had used marijuana on rare occasions Stephen Harper said he never has tried marijuana because he is asthmatic. If Harper spent as much time researching the truth as he did with his hands on the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem a few weeks ago he could enlighten himself concerning the many clinical trials which prove cannabis to be a bronchodilator which could actually be beneficial in treating his asthma. See: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1429361/ as one example by the British Pharmacological Society from as far back as 1978. As with so many of Harper's statements the information he feeds Canadians ab! out marijuana is patently false. Unfortunately he has our tax dollars to use to force his many falsehoods down our throats in wave after wave of advertising at our expense. Tell a lie often enough and people will eventually think it must be true. I cannot imagine any Canadians who took the time to consider the facts in this situation who would want to see Marc Emery spend his birthday in an American prison. Truth is most Canadians have no idea who Marc Emery is. Our daily lives are too busy figuring out how we are going to pay our bills and all the taxes which are demanded from us. Harper counts on us being too busy or too lazy to care. So he goes about constructing his own vision of Canada and doing whatever he has to just to stay in power. Jim Flaherty's budget will be declared balanced in time for the 2015 election whether it really is or not. Harper is in the midst of changing the Election Canada rules in his favour so his dirty tricks, like the false robocalls in the last election, will never be investigated in the future. He has a majority and he is using it to secure another majority so he can finish reshaping Canada in his own image. Marc Emery will not be Harper's last political prisoner. In many ways all Canadians already are. Alan Coxwell Stirling - --- MAP posted-by: Matt