PRINCE OF POT
00:00:01 [start]
00:00:05 JODIE EMERY: (giggling)… Mr. Man. You’re gonna have to get up soon.
00:00:11 EMERY: (groaning) …Pull the sleep out of my eyes.
00:01:12 JODIE: Oh…
00:00:15 Do you want me to make you a tea?
00:00:16 EMERY: M’hmm…
00:00:18 JODIE: Sleepy head.
00:00:21 JOHN MCKAY: Marc Emery intentionally moved illegal drugs into the United States knowingly, uh, uh, did that, he violated the laws of the United States’ government, and he was arrested for that.
00:00:33 EMERY: There is sort of that impending sensibility, like, not so much impending doom, but getting closer to a certain finality that I’m gonna perhaps get sent to the United States – 98 % likely as my lawyer says. So it makes your stomach knot up a bit and…
00:00:49 MCKAY: We’re talking about the number one purveyor of marijuana seeds into the United States. Marc Emery is facing 10 years to life in prison. That would be without parole. In the United States system, uh, under the federal system, there is no parole.
00:01:05 EMERY: Finally, now I’ve got the big David and Goliath battle I’ve always been seeking. And I, you know, I must have been goading them subconsciously all along to do this – “Go ahead, I dare ya’.”
00:01:23 PROTESTERS: Go Home USA! Go Home USA…
00:01:48 GREG WILLIAMS: These guys are workin’ for the United States!
00:01:50 PROTESTERS: Go Home USA! Go Home USA! Go Home…
00:01:55 NARRATOR: [THE U.S.] GOVERNMENT CHARGED THEM WITH DRUG TRAFFICKING, WHICH MEANS THEY NOW FACE A LONG EXTRADITION PROCESS THAT COULD LEAD TO A LIFE SENTENCE – WITHOUT PAROLE – IN AN AMERICAN JAIL. THEIR CRIME? SELLING MARIJUANA SEEDS – 10 PER PACKET – TO AMERICAN CUSTOMERS THROUGH EMERY’S MAIL-ORDER MARIJUANA SEED BUSINESS.
00:02:14 ROD BENSON: I’m pleased to announce that business is out of business effective today.
00:02:20 EMERY: They say I’m responsible for 1.1 million pounds – I hope it’s true! I hope it’s true. That would be great, that would be my legacy. I’d have produced more marijuana, uh, than anybody else on the planet except God himself.
00:02:31 NARRATOR: WHATEVER YOUR OPINION IS ON POT, A LIFE SENTENCE SEEMS LIKE OVERKILL.
00:02:38 FOR ME, IT’S NOT SO MUCH ABOUT SEEDS, BUT SOVEREIGNTY.
00:02:47 EMERY: My own Justice Minister signed off on sending me to the United States for the rest of my life. And let me assure you, if you the Canadian people allow me to be extradited, you will never see me alive again.
00:03:06 JODIE I met him online. I wanted to learn about cannabis and activism and he, uh, intrigued me. He was just very sweet and kind and intelligent, and he taught me a lot.
00:03:18 What I wanted was an older man to devote myself to, someone I could love and, uh, believe in, kind of like a Jackie O thing I guess. I just wanted to be somebody’s perfect wife and help them do whatever their mission is in their life.
00:03:38 Quick – one hit, and then we gotta go.
00:03:44 I was actually anti-drugs. I thought pot was bad and killed you. And when I finally smoked pot for the first time, it’s really the revelation that people need because you realize that there’s one lie, and it’s a big lie, and it’s that pot is bad. You know that’s a simple thing to say, there’s a lot more to it, but you start questioning everything.
00:04:10 NARRATIOR: OUT OF PRISON ON $50,000 BAIL, EMERY HAS BEEN ORDERED TO APPEAR IN THE BC SUPREME COURT TODAY. HE HASN’T BEEN CHARGED BY CANADIAN AUTHORITIES, BUT BEFORE ANY CANADIAN CITIZEN CAN BE EXTRADITED, A CANADIAN JUDGE MUST REVIEW THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM AND DECIDE WHETHER, IN THIS CASE, EMERY AND FRIENDS WILL BE SURRENDERED TO U.S. AUTHORITIES ACROSS THE BORDER.
00:04:34 JODIE: Spank your bum…
00:04:35 EMERY: I wonder if the others are here yet?
00:04:40 NARRATIOR: EMERY IS JOINED BY THE TWO LONG-TIME FRIENDS, MICHELLE AND GREG – WHO ARE NOW HIS CO-DEFENDANTS – AS THEY DIG IN FOR WHAT WILL LIKELY BE A LONG STRING OF COURT APPEARANCES AS THE EXTRADITION PROCESS UNFOLDS.
00:04:53 WILLIAMS: You’ve got a new prosecutor now. Rose is off the case.
00:04:56 MARC & JODIE: What??
00:04:57 WILLIAMS: Yeah.
00:04:57 JODIE: Really? Why?
00:04:59 WILLIAMS: I think it’s her workload has just shifted.
00:05:03 JODIE: Oh, no, but we have handsome charming lawyers that can sweep her off her feet! Aaar! It’s gonna be a lot more difficult with a mean old man there!
00:05:13 NARRATOR: EMERY PUTS ON A BRAVE FACE, BUT HE KNOWS THE ODDS ARE STACKED AGAINST HIM. HIS OWN LAWYER SAYS THE CHANCES OF FLAT-OUT BEATING AN EXTRADITION REQUEST ARE SLIM TO NONE.
00:05:25 IAN DONALDSON: It’s a difficult case… Extradition cases since the 1999 Extradition Act are very tough to defend.
00:05:32 EMERY: Well, miss, let’s go into our fate.
00:05:34 JODIE: Boo! This place sucks!
00:05:37 DONALDSON: The Minister of Justice has the ultimate decision. I am unaware of a single case in Canadian history where the Minister of Justice has declined to surrender somebody where a Committal Order has been made. Politically, they just don’t do it.
00:05:52 EMERY: It is bleak. Yeah, he’s told me that repeatedly, that I’m more or less doomed.
00:05:57 KIRK TOUSAW: It would be a tragedy to see these three people spend the rest of their lives in a jail in the United States for something that Canadian law enforcement officials and the Canadian public didn’t even deign to think important enough to investigate, much less prosecute.
00:06:11 NARRATOR: AFTER GETTING TO KNOW MARC EMERY, IT SEEMS THAT IN A WAY HIS WHOLE LIFE HAS LED UP TO THIS FIGHT. IN FACT, I THINK HE’S BEEN EAGERLY AWAITING IT FOR DECADES.
00:06:24 MARC EMERY grew up in london, ontario. he WAS ONLY 17 YEARS OLD WHEN HE QUIT high school TO BUY A LOCAL BOOKSTORE, which soon became his pulpit.
00:06:35 HERMAN GOODEN: It was just an extension of his overbearing personality. Almost immediately, it stared becoming a place where political debate would, uh, take place. Uh, Marc, being the kind of loudmouth, uh, guy he is, it just spontaneously sort of erupted around him.
00:06:50 NARRATOR: EMERY IMMEDIATELY BECAME A THORN IN THE SIDE OF THE LONDON, ONTARIO POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT.
00:06:57 EMERY REFUSED TO CLOSE HIS BOOKSTORE ON SUNDAYS. HE WAS FINED, BUT REFUSED TO PAY, AND INSTEAD WENT TO JAIL.
00:07:06 GOODEN: No small part of that is propelled by an ego that’s gotta be responsible for 40 % of his body weight.
00:07:13 NARRATOR: EMERY RAILED AGAINST THE CENSORSHIP OF MAGAZINES – INCLUDING POT MAGAZINES – WHICH WERE BANNED IN CANADA AT THE TIME.
00:07:21 EMERY: The Canadian government banned all the books about pot. And as a bookseller, I was pretty shocked to discover this.
00:07:27 We’ve been made enemies of the very people we pay taxes to keep afloat, and it’s time we turned around and told them, “Fuck you!”
00:07:38 NARRATOR: EMERY OPENLY BEGAN SELLING THE BANNED MATERIALS.
00:07:42 ALAN YOUNG: Marc was desperate to be charged so we could raise a constitutional challenge. He actually sold the books right outside the police station, the London Police Station, and sold them out there thinking, “They’ve got to bust me now – I’m on their property.” And they didn’t touch him.