Interview with Jodie Emery

Tracey: I first met Marc and Jodie Emery at the Toronto Freedom Festival 2010, held every year on May 1st in Queen’s Park, which is in downtown Toronto. The turnout was amazing this year… 40,000 people asking for freedom of expression, gathering together in a peaceful protest. I was there to show support for Neev of CALM, an interview subject in our book “The Successful Rebel”, written with my sister Melissa Ireland, and a figure in the current shifting sands of medical cannabis legislation.

As my husband and I walked through the massive crowd, I suddenly saw Marc Emery, the so called “Prince of Pot” who was currently awaiting an extradition order to the States, along with his lovely wife Jodie. Marc has been a very public activist for the end to prohibition of Cannabis, and his selling of seeds to the United States compassion clubs has gotten him into hot water with the US Feds. We wished him well, as he is a very respected activist and humanitarian. One of the last things that he said to us was “the media always talks about how my company made millions of dollars, but they don’t talk about the millions of dollars that we donated to activists in the States that changed Medical Marijuana laws to help the chronically ill and dying. It was never about the money. Losing possessions is nothing, if you fight for a just cause.” He also suggested that I interview Jodie for the next book that we’re working on “the Successful Female Rebel”.

I never imagined that less than a month after that meeting I would get a chance to interview Jodie for our book, and it would be about Marc Emery sitting in a US Jail.

Here's a bit of that encounter for you to enjoy. The full interview will, of course, be in our next book The Successful Female Rebel.

Tracey: Jodie, thank you very much for doing this interview today. I know that things have been incredibly busy since your husband Marc Emery was extradited to the United States. In book that we’re working on now, we’re trying to give a voice to the female rebels that we respect, and discussing how and why people get to the point where they become activists and rebels. What situations in rebels’ lives have keyed it off, and how people can channel their rebellion in a positive manner. Do you mind giving us a brief rundown of what you are doing now that you want people to know about and causes that you want them to rally around?

Jodie: Yes. We want to end prohibition, and we want to get rid of the Conservative government.

Tracey: What do you think that this extradition says about the relationship between Canada and the USA?

Jodie: That we’re being deeply integrated, and that our law enforcement is working together more than people know.

Tracey: Do you feel that this is something that we should be worried about? Because personally, I find it confusing that the United States has a president like Obama, who is a liberal and a humanitarian, and yet they are jailing Marc Emery who provided seeds to most of the medical compassion centres that are in the process of becoming legal in that same country. Don’t you find it kind of a strange dichotomy, hearing that California is in the process of legalizing cannabis and yet you have something like this with Marc going on?

Jodie: Yes, it’s ironic that Marc sent seeds and money that led to the medical marijuana state initiatives being passed, allowing for States to let patients use marijuana legally. The federal government in the United States has not approved medical marijuana use. The only thing that Obama has done is issue a memorandum to all federal agencies to respect state rights whenever it comes to difference between state and federal law.

Tracey: Now, I know that you’re running in the next federal election in the riding of Vancouver South, but what party are you representing?

Jodie: The Green Party of Canada.

Tracey: Any word on when the election might be?

Jodie: It’s supposed to be a fixed election date, but this government doesn’t follow the fixed election laws.

Tracey: They also don’t follow the freedom of information laws! When you see all the information that is redacted in their communications, it’s quite frightening.

Jodie: *laughs* Well, I call them the “Consecretive Government”!

Tracey: When you requested information about Marc’s case and when it comes, it’s all redacted, what do you do?

Jodie: Yeah, we asked for all information about Marc’s case shared between law enforcement and justice in Canada and the United States and they got back to us well past the legal deadline, and they said that there were over sixty thousand pages of information, but that most couldn’t be provided except for about sixty pages that we did receive. The vast majority of that was blacked out, except for a few email addresses of federal justice department officials.

Tracey: Wow. I find that frightening. What do you feel is going to be the most important platform that you’re going to be running on in the federal election?

Jodie: Ending prohibition.

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