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You’re not going that easy

By Kevin Steel ⋅ August 28, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

A court ruling could mean fewer extraditions

Canadian supporters of marijuana legalization thought the Supreme Court had given their hero, pot advocate Marc Emery, the perfect wedding present. Two days before the 48-year-old Emery married his 21-year-old assistant on July 23, the court ruled that Canadians can’t be extradited unless a judge first rules that the evidence would be sufficient to bring them to trial were they facing charges in this country. In the cases United States of America v. Ferras and United States of America v. Latty, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote, “The judge must act as a judge, not a rubber stamp.” With Emery facing extradition, charged by American agents last year for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet, the ruling gave Emery fans hope. Alas, it seems the gift may turn out to be an empty package.

“My lawyer told me it probably won’t affect my case at all, because a lot of the evidence against me consists of my own public statements,” Emery says, referring to admissions about his seed sales. It might be cause for celebration for two of his employees facing extradition. “There is a lot less evidence against them.”

Though it may be no good for Emery, David Matas, an international human rights lawyer in Winnipeg, considers the ruling a return to fundamental justice. Seven years ago, then justice minister Anne McLellan softened the extradition laws. Critics said it reduced judges’ power to weigh evidence as a sop to international courts, which the Liberals backed. A 1998 justice department press release bragged that the “modern” reforms enabled Canada “to comply with its international obligations regarding international criminal tribunals, established by the United Nations Security Council for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where Madam Justice Louise Arbour is the Chief Prosecutor.”

The latest ruling could mean fewer Canadians extradited, since sometimes the proof isn’t solid, says Edward Greenspan, the famed Toronto defence lawyer. “It will probably affect cases where the evidence is almost exclusively from one or two witnesses who are themselves accomplices and are now co-operating with authorities.”

According to Justice Canada, in 2004 (the last year with figures available) there were 178 extradition requests, 130 from the States. Figures aren’t kept on the extraditions’ success, probably because many drag on for years. Since the effect is qualitative, there’s no telling the impact on numbers. Still, even if Emery hasn’t been saved by this ruling, some Canadians might take comfort that a little piece of their sovereignty has been.

[This article appeared in the August 8, 2006 issue of the Western Standard.]