Marc Emery Put in Solitary Confinement in US Prison for Recording Podcast
CANNABIS CULTURE - Imprisoned marijuana activist Marc Emery has been put in solitary confinement in an American prison for unknowingly breaking an apparently unwritten rule by allowing his wife to record a phone conversation for publication as an online podcast.
On Thursday, June 3, officials at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center in the Washington gave Emery an official citation for allowing his wife, BC Green Party Director-at-Large Jodie Emery, to record a message from him over the phone, claiming it broke the prison's rule forbidding third-party calls. Emery was locked in a Segregated Housing Unit (SHU) and denied access to books, television, the telephone or contact with his wife and family. He will remain in the SHU until the prison holds an internal "disciplinary hearing" at an undetermined future date.
Emery's attorney Rick Troberman was allowed a brief visit on Tuesday, June 8 and said Marc has been locked in a very small for cell for 24 hours a day since Thursday, and could be there for a lot longer.
"We don't know how long he will be in there," Troberman said. "It's frustrating because he certainly didn't intend to break any rules and he's been doing everything he can to comply with the rules. [Recording podcasts] was something that he did regularly while in custody in Canada and there was never a problem with it. No one told him he couldn't do it here and as soon as he was told it was a violation of the rules he immediately sent a message to Jodie and told her not to broadcast it and she didn't."
Emery's wife Jodie says she is devastated she hasn't been able to talk to Marc for almost a week.
"It's horrible not hearing from my beloved husband, not knowing what's going on, when I'll be in touch with him next," she wrote in a recent blog post at Cannabis Culture. "And the solitary confinement is just the period where he waits for the punishment to be determined, as if it's not punishment enough! They can take away phone, email, AND visits."
Libby Davies, New Democratic Party MP for Vancouver East, sent a letter to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon today (read letter below) asking him to intervene to ensure that the rights and safety of Emery, as a Canadian citizen, are being respected. Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal MP for Vancouver South and member of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, also expressed concern about Emery's treatment.
"Marc should have access to consular officials and they should be vigilant in protecting Marc's rights under law in the US," said Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal MP for Vancouver South. "Here you have a man who has pleaded guilty to charges that would never be laid against him in this country, our police forces have facilitated his arrest and extradition to the US for crimes we would never prosecute him for here, and now for essentially making a telephone call to his supporters he has been put in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is for serious disciplinary transgressions, not for something that you do when you don't even know it is against the rules. Our government should be speaking to US authorities to have Emery sentenced as early as possible and then bring him home to serve his sentence."
Troberman said he though the punishment was unfair considering the circumstances.
"It seems to me that this is a completely overblown reaction," he said. "There was nothing in the conversation that was derogatory about the Federal Detention Center or his current situation or anything else. Why they're choosing to make such a big deal of it is, frankly, a mystery to me."
Before he was put in solitary, Emery managed to send an 'email' through CorrLinks, a Bureau of Prisons messaging system, to his wife saying that he had read all the prison rules and that they didn't mention anything about recording phone calls.
"There's nothing in my rule book that says you can't record my calls, so I thought it was OK," Emery wrote in a message published in his wife's blog post.
Emery is to remain in solitary confinement until his disciplinary hearing, where he will be given further punishment, which could mean the revoking of privileges or more time in the SHU. Emery is not entitled to a lawyer during a disciplinary action.
Emery is currently awaiting sentencing after being extradited to the US by the Conservative government of Canada. Emery was raided and arrested by the US DEA and Vancouver police in 2005 for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet and using the money to fund activism. He agreed to a 5-year plea deal in exchange for his two co-accused receiving probation in Canada. After sentencing, Emery will apply for transfer to Canada for the remainder of his sentence. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews will decide if Emery will be allowed to come home.
Click here to listen to episodes of Marc Emery's Prison Podcast
Click here to read Marc Emery's Prison Blog
Letter From NDP MP Libby Davies to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs
June 8, 2010
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
418 N Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Cannon,
I write to ask for your immediate intervention into the seemingly harsh treatment of a Canadian citizen currently serving a sentence at the SeaTac Federal Detention Centre in Seattle, Washington.
Since Thursday, June 3, Marc Emery of British Columbia, has been in solitary confinement awaiting disciplinary action for having recorded a conversation he had with his wife, in what amounts to a phone interview for his own internet blog.
Mr. Emery took all reasonable steps to be informed of all the rules and regulations that apply to him in his current circumstances. He was never provided the information that having a conversation recorded is against the rules. It is unreasonable that Mr. Emery be denied access to phones, books, writing materials and contact with his family for an undetermined amount of time. It is unfair that further disciplinary measures are also being considered.
I have written your government on several occasions to express my opposition to sending any Canadian to a US prison for actions that don’t merit prosecution under Canadian laws. Having taken this rare step, Canada has a unique responsibility to Mr. Emery.
I ask that your office take all necessary steps to act immediately to ensure Mr. Emery’s rights are being respected and safety protected, including his release from solitary confinement.
Sincerely,
ORIGINAL SIGNED
Libby Davies MP Vancouver East
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- Prince of Pot Marc Emery Could be Extradited to US Friday
I am leaving this comment specifically for Jodie, I hope she reads it.
First, I trully feel for you Jodie. It is very difficult to have a loved one in prison under any circumstances and it must be especially difficult considering exactly why marc is in our prison system currently. I give both Marc and you my full support and empathy.
Now, this part is not quite as nice so I will appologize in advance if I offend you.
What exactly were either you or Marc thinking?!? He is incarcerated in an AMERICAN prison, a federal prison no less. Marc is not really there for selling seeds, although that is what he plead guilty to, MArc is in prison for purely political reasons based 99% on his activism. To think that the U.S. would allow him to be merely housed in prison but continue on with his political activism (what he is REALLY in prison for) was rediculous. I am sure in retrospect both you and Marc are completely aware of this at this point.
Now, please allow me to tell you exactly what is going to happen from this point on during Marc's stay in the U.S. prison system.
First, he is going to spend some additional time in solitary. My best guess would be 30 - 60 days, our prison system does not care about how it makes you feel as his wife and they will do this not to convince Marc to change his ways but to exact a bit of retribution from him.
Not to worry though, they will let him out. They need him to talk to you. You see, Marc is in prison but you are continuing on his activism in his place for the time being (more power to you by the way). You can also bet that this website is still being monitored by the DEA and other interested political parties. They have seen your reation to Marc being in solitary and that reaction provided them with a brand spanking new weapon to use against you and Marc. The weapon of loss.
Over the course of the next year Marc will be in and out of solitary for a variety of reasons, none of which will be ligit in my book but in and out none the less. The pressure will be applied in order to convince both you and Marc that your brand of activism needs to stop, possibly dismantling the website and other such actions in order to keep him out of solitary.
Marc is upbeat and trying to play the nice inmate, this is just pissing them off to no end. When you are in an American prison you are supposed to be miserable, servile, obedient and all of those other things that Marc is not. They will go out of thier way to break him and you along with him.
As he makes freinds in the prison while he is there those relationships will be undermined with punishments being metted out to these new aquantances in order to remove any internal support structure that Marc may be building. Marc will be included in those punishments as well but you can rest assured that everyone involved will be un-officially told that they are being punished for one of Marc's actions.
I am feel so much sorrow for you and Marc now and it pains me to have to be the one to tell you that your sorrows are only just starting and they will worsen.
Cremater
33 months Wasco State Penitentiary
27 months Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary
The thing is i dont think marc or jodie will stop the fight. they realize this fight is what makes them feel alive and worthy of a purpose. this is what will keep them strong until marc is released. the us will never take this from them. they may as well roll over and die if they do. its mostly a waiting game just keep strong and hold out and you will be victorious in the end like the turtle and the hare.
US law falsely claims: "Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, §812(c), based on its high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use, and no accepted safety for use in medically supervised treatment, §812(b)(1). This classification renders the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana a criminal offense. §§841(a)(1), 844(a). Pp. 6—11."
source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1454.ZS.html
Millions have been arrested since DHHS applied for 2003 US Patent No. 6630507 in 1999, despite the title* of that federal document . . .
Wait, what's DHHS? At the top of this page:
http://supersoberme.com has a direct link to the feedback page of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that was issued 2003 US Patent No. 6630507, "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants", linked here:
* source: http://tinyurl.com/classactionlawsuit
Don't just blog. Free Marc Emery:
DHHS should remove raw cannabis from scheduling, it's healthy food regardless of THC content and belongs untaxed as such. Artificial and manufactured cannabinoids may be appropriately listed in Schedule V.
Correspondence to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Or, call the Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-514-2000 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-353-1555 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Here is the White House contact page:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Contact them respectfully and challenge their false claims directly.
Better yet, get your lawyers to file suit. Drug War IS crime.
Yep..could not have put it better. Marc is imprisoned for his political actions. Tandy proved it, you knew it...and yet you continued. Welcome to the "land of the free".
The Fed's are using a double edged sword and it cuts both ways. The more publicity Marc gets, the more sympathy and followers he gains. Unless you want Marc in solitary confinement for no reason get out there this weekend with a Google: Marc Emery sign on a major highway. The more people that are exposed to his story the more that will see the evil in the system. You will be making a difference.
See? They have him in custody only a short while before those petty tyrants contrived an excuse to torture the man. Any excuse will serve a tyrant. It is as if Marc is the scapegoat for every Reefer Madness -inspired zealot he now comes in contact with. They can't get all those evil pot smokers - but they can get Marc.
The US has turned every "right" into an excuse for government to further prey on people.
Charles Dickens was correct when he said, "I believe that the heaviest blow ever dealt at liberty's head will be dealt by this nation in the ultimate failure of its example to the earth." That's the way it turned out. They promise freedom and happiness, yet deliver misery and slavery.
That is the message of FREE MARC,and tyranny will fail.People only wake-up from their FEAR and ANONYMITY when they are moved to act from righteous indignation.The film "Principle of Pot" is all about this THESIS.Compassion for Jodie is the ammunition of FEELINGS you use with Harper voters as you humbly wash there emotional feet with hemp seed oil nonTHC medicine.LITERALLY wash the enemies feet with LOVE and TRUTH,and create sympathy.They can't help understand then?Smoke-out anonymous rant is counter-productive.Build logical affinity,and work through the IRRATIONAL FEAR of HARPER CHRISTIAN VOTERS and SYSTEM ONE PRIMAL FEAR.Listen to Thomas James teach gun fetish patriot people about HEMP NUT FOOD from CANADA hempfield industry.Hemp is MARIJUANA???USE Canadian REFERENDUM to vote a single LAW like in Cannafornia.Cannada?Chicago Blackhawks have LORD STANLEY and SYMPATHY for the INJUSTICE to Jodie and all people will allow themselves in LOGOS a VOTE YES for our sacrament!!!
in the united states the police can only hold you for a maximum of 72 hours before they either charge you with a crime or release you.
But if youre already in custody they think they can put you in solitary confinment indefinitely waiting for "justice"???
That is disgusting; THE PUNISHMENT SHOULDN'T BE WORSE THAN THE CRIME.
Our country is founded on revolution, why are we stopping people for speaking what they believe in.
Inhumanity is not justice.
I still feel that the decision by the justice minister should have went under the microscope.
and yes, this is a way of making sure that the political voice is shut down.
it only shows how sour the situation is, dam right it was a politically motivated arrest and dam right it should not have come to an extradition because of that fact.
there was a channel to have the decision or lack of acknowledgment of it being politically motivated brought right out and that channel was not used. there was actually laws put there to stop what happened from happening and you guys just copped it sweet. I do feel for you, but i do wonder why these steps where never taken? was it because the tentacles of those in power went so far that the protection that should have been there was ground away?
or was the justice minister just hopeful his analysis and findings where not going to be more thoroughly looked into.
take a look at what he wrote and what he avoided mentioning. its surely foul play to have not mentioned these issues.
i guess its too late now, and you just have to hold onto what is left. you know in your heart your on a winnner in terms of the prohibition should end and that what you fight for is right. so it is only a matter of time before it becomes recognised.
If it ain't the McCulture of plastic disposable toxicity then it's the next best thing to hell - solitary confinement for being a nice guy that sold seeds.
It's a pickle no doubt about it.
Alas, without the push for a free humanity and healthy earth what else is there people?
Do you wish to see children become micro-chipped at birth chocking on poor air-quality alerts and dodging false-flag 'terrorist threats'...?
Ask the Bush/Clinton/Harper elites (Washington District Cabal) as they may well have an answer for you to digest should you even be able to stomach the truth of what kind of multi-trillion dollar pyramid scheme we are farmed into.
We all die, just a matter of how.
Standing for something good or just another eatn' shitn' lemming complicit to tyranny.
Now, what's your choice?
Get violent, clog their barrels with the dead, there is no other way these people will listen and stop persecuting the innocent.
Attack the prison.
Just like with what they are doing to me,they know I need a few hundred grand to clear my name and prove what they did to me so I will use every means I can to prove how they treat me.
I use camcorders,taperecorders/laptops and PC's to get out the word on what they do to me so I can expose them all to you the people.
All my movements are monitored and my phone calls recorded and I am followed where ever I go on the internet and these people will screw me over when ever they can.
They now know that when ever they come near me or say anything to me it is posted on the net for others to see what they do to me and this sends fear into them because they are corrupt and know what they do is WRONG.
They know I will use these things to prove it and they will try to stop it when they can,if they had their way a doctor would have insisted I be not given access to the internet.
They would arrest me if they could for even just mentioning what they did to me,they want me to accept what they did to me lol that's so funny.
They knew Marc and jodie would record it before Marc even got to Scumerica so it was all just a trap,they knew they would record so how hard is it to simply say "no recording".
They did it on purpose they set it all up to do this to him,I cannot imagine the other crimes against him they have planned,how many more traps do they have set for him?.
This is nothing but bullshit and ment to get us all to hate the americans even more than we do now.
Today I am painting up one more GOOGLE MARC EMERY sign for my weekly weekend two hour protest but I am wondering do I need to resort to other signs instead like "AMERICANS GO HOME".?
Oh right they are home after all this is their country and we are all americans or at least you are I am not,that's why I am out there on that highway every weekend so I can show anerican that I AM CANADIAN.
I will fight for my freedom with my signs, I am willing to use other weapons to get it done but I need support just like you do to get it done.
Just say the word and I will put down my signs and pick up my weapons to slay any american that chooses to think my country can be invaded without a fight.
It was all just a trap and if Mr obama was in charge of his country he would order Marc released back to Canada but he is nothing but a puppet that answers to the elite hitlers who are the one who ordered this upon Marc.
We all listened to Mr obama give us his line of bullshit when he rambled on about making "CHANGE" can you beleive?,change what? the line of bullshit maybe.
When I heard him talk of change I right away started to imagine bcbud in my greenhouse and hemp in any other free area of my yard.
They gave us a line of shit by pretending the HATE is over now because a black man is in the house,like as if the world was gonna be a better place now because of his black ass.
Well to you mister obama all I can say is that as long as I am a criminal for growing and smoking the plant god gave us then you will allways be just a "_igger" for the skin god gave you.
So I think you know what I am saying,can't even say the n word these days but you can take away a white man for selling seeds and no I ain't being racist.
Untill cannabis is legal then hatred and war will allways be present on this planet and the elite will continue to send tyranny throughout the land untill eventually we will all be inprisoned.
It's so sad that this is happening to such a good person. But in the "good ol" USA it is standard practice for local, state and federal governments to make laws that know one knows about, then ruins the lives of people for breaking them, even though they don't know about them. Government says, "It's every citizens responsibility to know the law" but it's all a bunch of bullshit and a rouse to keep the Nazi-esque US Law Regime alive and prosperous. How the hell can anyone with a sane mind expect anyone to know ALL of the thousands and thousands of laws on the books? It's impossible! That's why we have lawyers! And mind you, I have seen first-hand how this legal machine works and the cops, lawyers, judges and prison systems are all working together, along with the politicians, to keep the Prison Industrial Complex alive and well. It's the New Slavery System and the rest of us are sitting here either stupid as cows or frustrated and unable to do anything about it. The USA has definitively become the new Nazi Regime in so many ways. It's very scary.
Marc chose to serve his time in the USA. He had the option to be charged in Canada and not have to go to the USA, but decided that he preferred to serve his time in the USA, because he didn't want to have his property in Canada seized under proceeds of crime laws.
He doesn't deserve to be in prison for pot - no one does, really - but he chose to plead guilty and to serve his time in the USA, so how can anyone protest about his choices? You can't have your cake and eat it too.
And you don't hear him or his followers sharing this info with the public.
Is it true that Marc had a choice about where he spent his time???
It completely changes everything if this is true? Jodie? Anybody? I want to see news sources or something that can verify this.
I thought he was fighting a sentence in US prisons all along, but if what this poster is saying is true (and I highly doubt it) it throws a completely different light on Marc Emery's situation. This whole complaint about solitary confinment and "not knowing" about the rules against recorded phone calls has me questioning my own concern for Marc's plight. I do support him and I do support legalization, but these sorts of details are important.
Right now I'm personally thinking about other things I can do to support the end of prohibition other than supporting Marc Emery. So it's important to know what the truth is.
Emery fully disclosed and it seems clear he chose to plead guilty under duress, just as Tommy Chong had years before. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think the property claims are bunk, also.
As for the rest of your "info", you can have your cake and eat it too by not eating all the cake at once.
In fact, you can have your cake, eat it and give it away.
Simple truth, indeed. Free Marc Emery.
Canada refused to procecute Marc, thats why he is in the US. DAMN, READ SOME ARTICLES ON THIS SITE! Read Marcs bio, Jodies bio, the forums. You want to do something, start with reading something and stop relying on anomymous to give you information.
He had no option to be charged in Canada because Canada doesn't have the same laws etc that the US does.....here he faced a $200 fine, there he faced life in prison. This was a DEA operation that was allowed to happen in Canada. He chose to plead guilty so his friends didn't end up in jail along with him. He should get all the respect in the world for that alone.
This should never have happened in the first place since we are supposedly a sovereign nation. But of course that is coming to an end with the North American Union. This is a test case to allow further cases to be brought against more Canadians. Pretty soon we will all be faced with the possibility of spending time in US prisons based on bullshit charges that are not supposed to apply to us. Enjoy the New World Order!
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