(I posted this in Jason Cherick’s comments. Go sign the Emery petition…)
Political, in this context, has several aspects. First, it is pretty clear Emery was targetted as much for the fact he is a strong advocate of drug law reform as for his business activites.
Second, the overall American War on Drugs is a political war in which American politicians are competing to show who is tougher on crime using drug laws and mandatory minimums as measures of toughness.
Third, Canada has made an explicitly political decision not to follow America down the “Zero Tolerance, Ten year minimum road”.
Fourth, Canada has a Charter with by 6(1) promises security of person and s. 7 a reputable system of justice.
Fifth, America is seeking to set a precedent for extradition in a relatively case where the “crime” is so trivial under Canadian law that we have exercised our prosecutorial discretion and declined to charge anyone for at least a decade. That precedent, once established will allow the US Government to go after other seed sellers and paraphinalia makers; but it will also put file sharers and people who crack software encryption at risk of the DMCA.
Put those elements together and, in my view, both at the judicial level and the ministerial, for the sake of the preservation of the probity of the administration of justice, Emery’s S. 6(1) rights to the security of his person must not be violated.
This is not about pot - it is about sovereignty and the Canadian government acting to protect the rights our Charter has granted to each of us.
Written by jay on August 4th, 2005 with no comments.
Read more articles on Canada US Relations and Pot and law.
Section 7 (”fundamental justice”) applies because the extradition order would, if implemented, deprive the respondents of their rights of liberty and security of the person since their lives are potentially at risk. The issue is whether the threatened deprivation is in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. Section 7 is concerned not only with the act of extradition, but also with its potential consequences. The balancing process set out in Kindler and Ng is the proper analytical approach. The “shocks the conscience” language signals the possibility that even though the rights of the fugitive are to be considered in the context of other applicable principles of fundamental justice, which are normally of sufficient importance to uphold the extradition, a particular treatment or punishment may sufficiently violate our sense of fundamental justice as to tilt the balance against extradition. The rule is not that departures from fundamental justice are to be tolerated unless in a particular case it shocks the conscience. An extradition that violates the principles of fundamental justice will always shock the conscience.
United States v. Burns
Neutral citation: 2001 SCC 7
I ran into this cite at Rabble’s ongoing discussion of the Emery matter. this is exactly the sort of decision which can be used by Emery at the judicial level and provides another hook for an argument at the Ministerial level. And it is interesting that in this case the Minister used his discretion to sign off on extraditing two people who potentially faced the death penalty in the States, they appealed and the Court found that the failure of the Minister to “seek assurances” was contrary to the fundamental principles of justice….Hmmmm
Written by jay on August 4th, 2005 with no comments.
Read more articles on Canada US Relations and Pot and Uncategorized and law.
Just when the CPC has, more or less, realized that SSM is not a winning issue we have the lamer Justice critic coming out with this. (And Simon Pole has the tape up.)
Toews made some concessions that US marijuana penalities are much harsher than ours. But overall, he came out as punitive and inflexible, and perhaps a little angry. He repeated many times with great approval that, overall, the US justice system is much more punitive than ours. He also forcefully advocated his belief that Canadian police like to turn Canadians over to American authorities where they’ll get harsher penalties.
simon pole
SSM ensured I was not going to vote Tory…if this is the Tory attitude towards the Emery affair I might actually vote NDP simply to preserve the last vestiges of Canadian soverignty.
Toews is setting a new standard for dumb and politically idiotic. Little wonder Pater McKay is getting ready to play snuggle bunnies with the Grits.
Written by jay on August 4th, 2005 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized.