Starting in Canada….

The following exclusive interview, recorded by rabble.ca, took place between Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, and Marc and Jodie Emery in January 2010 in Vancouver, days before his extradition was expected to take place. Marc, 52, was extradited to the US on May 20th to serve a five-year prison sentence for shipping marijuana seeds to Americans. This far-ranging interview covers the reasons for Emery’s extradition, the war on drugs, Canadian sovereignty, and Marc’s previous experience in prison.

Q – From their point of view, what point are they trying to make by your arrest and extradition?

It is a culture war. They are trying to intimidate people. We gave away about $4 million every year between 1995 and 2005 to all kinds of groups: activist groups, political parties. We gave a quarter of a million dollars to a drug addiction clinic, and what have you. These were great donations that were meant to spur a movement worldwide, and the DEA were aware of that, they have worldwide mandate and were aware of that. We were giving money to organizations all around the world for advertising, political parties, rallies, marches.

The war on drugs has failed in every way. Drugs are more prevalent than they’ve ever been in society and due, in part if not in whole, because of the laws in place. How do they refute the argument that if it were legalized, and taxed, it would erase the need for drug cartels? And the hypocrisy in alcohol and cigarettes having a place in our communities which are far more dangerous? The most dangerous thing about cannabis, is the questions one asks once they open their minds a bit. This stigma, this idea of the “stoner junkie” is something that we need to get over if we’re to start healing our communities.

This interview was really open and honest and thoughtful… and I wish that  everyone, who feels that people who fight for cannabis rights are just losers and  junkies, could walk a day in Marc’s shoes, could take a moment to look past their learned prejudices of the last 60 years and realize that it is just a plant.

~

Last week I wrote a post about the firebombing attack at an RBC in Ontario. Just like there was last February over the anti-Olympic protests, there is a storm of debates over the respect for diversity of tactics. In my post, I say that violence in never the answer. While I realize that looking through history shows that real change has rarely happening without either direct or implied violence, and that I should support all acts of activism, I cannot reconcile the voice in my heart that tells me we must find a non-violent path towards peace and change.

WarriorPublications.com released a statement on RBC Arson Attack. I’d like to share a quote from it:

Our peoples have engaged in over 500 years of resistance to colonization using a diversity of tactics, including armed resistance, blockades, occupations, protests, land reclamations, etc. Yes, people have died and many more have been injured, property destroyed, etc.—but colonialism is by its very nature violent.

Indigenous peoples in Canada suffer many casualties today. Suicides, drugs and alchohol, disease, toxic water, prisons, police violence, thousands of missing or murdered Native women. These are not the result of anti-colonial resistance, but that of colonial genocide. Yet, neither Canada nor the corporations involved in destroying land and life are ever described as ‘violent.’ It is only when there is a militant attack against them that there is a moralizing cry of violence.

To support the institutionalized violence of colonialism, or the state’s monopoly on the use of violence, while condemning those who resist such violence, is nothing less than hypocrisy.

Yes, there is violence in resistance, there is love and joy, there is heartache, there is bitterness and hatred as well as hope and passion. Sounds like life, doesn’t it? And those who risk their freedom in this life and death struggle should be respected for their courage and committment, not condemned.

My heart also agrees with everything they have to say. How can we judge any method taken when the cause we are fighting runs so deep and so far? No one (well, not a lot of people anyways), are calling out the government for their acts of violence over the centuries, over the decades, over the months and weeks and days of everyday life in which First Nations people are still fighting for their rights.

So maybe I need to retract my thoughts a little… violence is never the answer, but when nothing else is the answer either, what are we left with?

How you choose to fight/stand up/speak/ for the causes of your heart should be as much a personal choice as anything I guess.

Where is the right or wrong line? And who’s making the line? And who’s crossing it?

I think in the end, when we talk about accountability, we have to make our own lines. And what ever actions we take, if we’re to stay true to our selves and each other, we have to respects our lines, as well as others.

So for me? My personal line is drawn at speaking out and taking non-violent action. Because that may just be my lot in life. But should I impose my lines (moral view) on everyone else? I don’t think so…

This line of thinking is very hard for me.

Because this kind of thinking is similar to the  argument that Rand Paul has been using in his fight for private businesses to discriminate.
I believe that discriminating against people of color, sex, etc is wrong.

What tells me it’s wrong? It’s just an answer that’s waiting for me, when I look inside myself… and I shed all outside influences, and I ask myself. Is it right or is it wrong?

I’m a firm believe in our ability to have and use our own moral compass. I want to believe that all humans, when they can let go of out side teachings and influences and have an honest conversation with themselves about these issues, would feel that to hate because of skin color is silly and wrong.

But what if some people can’t let go? And all they see is what they’ve been taught; To hate people because they’re a different color, or a different religion or they have a diff sexual orientation. What do we do then? How do we get through to each other? With out just stating, you’re wrong! no you’re wrong?! and so on and so on. This is where I feel that violence lacks the vocabulary to expand the pathway of thinking that builds bridges of understanding. This is why I think we could solve the problems of the world if we all disarmed and just talked it out.

This is why I feel that until someone is brave enough to drop the weapon first, we’ll always be at war.

Anyways… this kinda turned into some side track philosophy.

Other Articles I read today:

BP Continues to Apply Toxic Dispersant

BP has continued to apply Corexit to the Gulf, according to The New York Times. The forms of Corexit used by BP, as we’ve reported, are banned for use on oil spills in the U.K. and have been linked to a slew of human health problems following their use on the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

How is BP in control of the clean up is my question?

~

Two articles about Harper and his refusal to support a bank tax.

Harper’s bank tax rejection harms international relations

and

The Canadian ‘good banks’ myth, by my fav author of the moment, Murray Dobbin.

In the midst of a world financial crisis, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has mounted an international campaign to thwart the efforts of European leaders to force major banks to take out — and pay for — compulsory bad loan insurance. The insurance principle that lies behind the European proposal is that in bad times, banks less affected by crisis, should shoulder responsibility along with those in trouble. Harper has decided to use his position as host of June’s G8/G20 meetings to oppose prudent measures to restore some order to out-of-control banking practices.

Just because we haven’t been hit by lightning (yet), doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be preparing for it! Harper is like the goddamn grasshopper, doing his thing, having a good time while the rest of the world toils to get their banks under control. And here we are, fighting it!!!!!! I just can’t even believe I’m seeing a day where the US would be more progressive in this regard than us.

And the whole argument, of how Canada hasn’t has a economic melt down yet? Doesn’t really ring true to me when I’m hearing about people losing their homes in Alberta. I think because of how small we are in comparison to the states, our problems were also proportional.  Murray thinks so too.

First, we put up $70 billion to buy up iffy mortgages from the big five banks, through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, taking them off the banks’ balance sheets. That is almost the exact equivalent the U.S. bailout — it spent 10 times as much, $700 billion, and its economy is about 10 times as large.

So yah, one more shining example of how terrible Harper is. Surprise surprise.

(Some more back ground reading about the Canada housing bubble)

What else?

Ah yes, the war.(s)

Obama’s War Supplemental: Recent Reports Strengthen The Case Against It

This added budget would bring total Department of Defense spending on the Afghan war this fiscal year to $99 billion — eclipsing the $61 billion for Iraq. Troop strength would weak at 98,000 by the fall.

Now I highly doubt anyone is still reading at this point… I know I tend to go on and on, but 99 billion this year alone!? Where is the Tea Party now!? Gah. Drives me crazy how some Americans will get all up in arms about tax money helping poor people get coverage, but they don’t mind at all that their tax money is killing people in this utterly fruitless war.

In the realms of US politics, here’s a cute little article poking fun at the Political Right.

Here’s a hot one, Sex, Lies and Global Warming

You’d think the former Vice President, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work to educate people about the dangers of global warming, would be concerned about his carbon footprint. But this isn’t the first time Gore’s desire to live large has collided with his call for us to transition to greener and more energy efficient ways of life. The day after his film about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research released a report stating that Gore’s Nashville, Tennessee home, which he still owns, was using more than 20 times the energy of the average US home.

Al’s actions leave me a little sad too.  Unfortunately actions speak louder than words, and his actions are loud and clear. It’s taking away form the message. Even my mum, who agrees with me on almost every issue, has fallen into thinking that climate change is a hoax.

No matter your beliefs in climate change or not, this is the truth:

In a world of finite natural resources and an ever-growing human population, the inconvenient truth is that we need to learn not just to green our consumption, but also to consume less stuff.

Any who, I’ve rambled enough for one day.

Every Friday I’m going to try and post an audio log talking about some of the current events of the week. This show will be co hosted by myself and my twin sister Joules. However, due to technical difficulties, the first show is just me! But in next weeks podcast/radio show she will be joining me.

Today I talk about Mother’s day, Canadian politics, Pot and Prison.

Edit:  Bah! I forgot to save it in mp3 format and so i can’t get it working right!!

Edit again:  Ok, fixed it for now with this awesome ghetto windows player.

Amy Goodman, host of Democracynow! talks with former president of the United Nations General Assembly, Father Miguel D’Escoto.

I admit my knowledge of the inner workings of the UN is not as extensive as I’d like, but even in my small understanding, I’ve always wondered at the veto powers enabled to the few select countries in the security council.  Why should they be given so much power above the rest?  How does this structure represent a democracy?

Father Miguel D’Escoto asks;

How much power do corporations, and the industrial military complex, have over the United States?

More people need to ask these questions.

Right now there is a growing movement within the US, (The Tea Party), led by the Political Right to incense the people into a frenzy over the Government.   What’s so sad about this is how easily people are misled by this information. The fault for the inequality, the housing crisis, the bail outs, it’s not because of the Administration.   It’s because of the corporate influence, the countless lobbyists, and the big bankers that all infect, corrupt and infiltrate the government.

Lets remove all campaign finance, all corporate contributions and lower the wages for political leaders and see what happens.  I have a good feeling, that we would see some real change and some real progress.

I was reading into more detail about the role of the US within the US, and in the section on Iraq, one sentence stands out.

Following the overthrow of the former Iraqi government, the Iraq Survey Group led an exhaustive search of Iraq for WMD. Ultimately no deployable WMD of any kind were found and all WMD production facilities had been found to be inactive since 1991.

An entire war, for nothing, for oil, could have been avoided if the UN had been strong enough to stand up to the US.  Another thing Miguel mentions in this interview is how uneducated the average citizen is on how many people died during the Iraqi war.

Over one million people.

This leads me to another thought that I may or may not have mentioned before about war.  People talk about the fear we have about World War III.   It’s the reasons we’re still armed, it’s the reason the US insists it needs a nuclear arsenal large enough to destroy the world five times over.

Well, i have a news flash, it’s already happened.   Not only that, but we’re chest deep in World War IV.   After, all what constitutes a world war?  How many countries have to be involved before we admit it’s a world war?

Noun 1. world war;

– a war in which the major nations of the world are involved
- the waging of armed conflict against an enemy; “thousands of people were killed in the war”

Hmm! Ok, let’s look at Iraq!

How many countries were involved? Well in the coalition of the willing there were 49 different countries.

The 49 countries are Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Tonga, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, and Uzbekistan.

Now, a few of those country don’t really have a military presence and a few withdrew support. But that’s still quite a lot of different Nations all over the world going to war.

So that’s a check. Now let’s look at some numbers.

The numbers are a little overwhelming.

There are so many difference sources that estimate anywhere from seven hundred thousand to over a million. From what I’ve gathered, because of the intense media black out that was prevalent throughout the Iraqi war, concrete information is hard to find. However, most sources I’ve come upon are in agreement that the death toll has risen above one million.

In reading through the wiki articles, I came upon a few points that I wasn’t even expecting to read about. The US invasion has done nothing to help the people of Iraq. I think every single American, and Canadian, and everyone with a computer for that matter should fully inform themselves on the full aspect of this war. To start with, the treatment of the LGBT community has deteriorated into a form of genocide.

Since the US invasion and the rise of sharia law, gays have been routinely rounded up, raped and murdered. There are also claims that lesbians are suffering rapes by men trying to ‘cure’ their homosexuality. Most gay men in Iraq now live hidden and transsexuals once noticeable in Baghdad have vanished. Iraqi officials generally refuse to even discuss the situation or acknowledge homosexuality.

I just don’t understand how anyone can justify war.

As I continue reading… the more desperate I feel.  We have to stop it somehow. The next point I read reminded me of the bus driver who was so sure we were improving the quality of life by building schools and hospitals.

A November 11, 2006 Los Angeles Times article^[66] reports:

The [Iraq] nation’s health has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s, said Joseph Chamie, former director of the U.N. Population Division and an Iraq specialist. “They were at the forefront”, he said, referring to healthcare just before the 1991 Persian Gulf War. “Now they’re looking more and more like a country insub-Saharan Africa.”

A November 9, 2006 International Herald Tribune article reported what Iraq’s Health Minister, Ali al-Shemari, said about the issue:

Al-Shemari said Iraq needed at least 10 years to rebuild its infrastructure, and that the medical situation in the country was “gloomy.” There was a shortage of medical supplies, which sometimes took months to reach the country from abroad, while roadblocks prevented people from getting to hospitals, he said. No hospital has been built in Iraq since 1983, and the country’s 15,000 available hospital beds were well short of the 80,000 beds needed. The minister also noted that many doctors had left the country. “We need help from anybody,” Al-Shemari said.^[21]

Why is it so much easier for us to bomb than to help?

Then I came across this small paragraph about the poor children who’ve had to spend the last 7 years going through this.

Seventy percent of children are suffering from trauma-related symptoms according to a study of 10,000 primary school students in the Shaab section of north Baghdad, conducted by the Iraqi Society of Psychiatrists and the World Health Organization. “We’re now finding an elevation of mental health disorders in children — emotional, conduct, peer, attention deficit,” according to Iraqi psychiatrist Hashimi. “A number are even resulting in suicide.”

What kind of world is this? Where the end results of war are not taken into consideration. What kind of people will these children grow up to become? We’re not building democracies. We’re profiting at the expense of their lives.

Once again I realize I’ve been using “we’re”. I find it easier to speak from the point of view of the western world, since those are the people I’m usually hoping to give food for thought to. I do this because I strongly feel that we, the people, have the power to stop this. We need to raise our voices, all of them.

I guess this is a good place to stop. I need to take a moment.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Gandhi.

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind…”