The city hall hearing into whether the Prince of Pot Marc Emery can get business licences for three of his operations started this week but won't conclude until late July.
Before I get to that, though, I should tell you that the real drama at the hearing happened after the day's session at city hall adjourned.
There was a bit of a commotion on the stairway leading to the council chambers' balcony. Four uniformed cops and one plainclothes guy had a man cornered at the top of the stairs and were shooing folks away. The cornered fellow was filmmaker Roger Larry, who for the past several years has been shooting a documentary about Emery.
According to the cops, a backpack had been left unattended outside council chambers. When no one claimed it, the cops decided to pop it open and look for ID. They found the ID tying the bag to Larry. They also allegedly found a bag of pot.
Larry was arrested, but after a brief chat with the cops he was released. According to Sgt. Neil Munro the bag of pot was "seized for destruction." And when Emery heard of the Larry bust he said, "He doesn't work for me."
Indeed, Emery has enough problems without one of his employees getting nailed for possession. His battle for those business licences is far from won, particularly given his 2004 criminal record for trafficking in the evil weed. That too is insignificant compared with the extradition hearing Emery faces. But let's take these one at a time.
From 2001 until now, Emery has operated his various pot-related businesses on the Downtown Eastside without a business licence. As Emery sees it, former mayors from Philip Owen through Larry Campbell and Sam Sullivan were willing to turn a blind eye to the dope smoking and seed selling going on under Emery's roof. There were no complaints from neighbours and no street disorder he says, so everything was cool.
The licensing department apparently declared that Emery was basically running a political party, The Marijuana Party, and no business licence was required.
That all changed when Emery decided to expand his empire and applied for a business licence to operate a convenience store in the 300 block of West Hastings across the street from party headquarters, Pot TV and a "vaporizer room" where people pay a fee to consume pot from something called a "Volcano."
Barb Windsor, the city's chief licensing inspector, explained to the hearing panel that when Emery applied for that convenience store licence in 2008, he triggered a police background check. (The check happened because of a city policy that calls for such checks when a previous business tenant was found to be engaging in illegal acts. To stop one bad guy from taking over from another, this policy is applied to Downtown Eastside addresses.)
When Windsor ordered the check on Emery she found his 2004 criminal record for trafficking. Emery was busted when he handed someone a lighted joint at pro-pot rally in Saskatoon.
Anyway, under city regulations, any conviction within five years of applying for a licence that relates to the type of business the applicant wants to conduct is enough for the licence inspector to refuse the licence. When Windsor looked at Emery's smoky entrepreneurial history and was updated by the Vancouver police on what was going on under the Volcano, she rejected his application.
A year later Emery is in front of a council business licence hearing trying to convince three councillors to cut him some slack.
But all of this may be moot. Before the licence hearing resumes, Emery will be facing an extradition hearing. Those Drug Warriors to the south are after him for allegedly selling marijuana seeds through the mail to many American customers. They want him down there to stand trial where he faces up to a decade behind bars.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Times Colonist
Author: Allen Garr
Contact: Times Colonist
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: Dope and Hope Mark Hearing
Before I get to that, though, I should tell you that the real drama at the hearing happened after the day's session at city hall adjourned.
There was a bit of a commotion on the stairway leading to the council chambers' balcony. Four uniformed cops and one plainclothes guy had a man cornered at the top of the stairs and were shooing folks away. The cornered fellow was filmmaker Roger Larry, who for the past several years has been shooting a documentary about Emery.
According to the cops, a backpack had been left unattended outside council chambers. When no one claimed it, the cops decided to pop it open and look for ID. They found the ID tying the bag to Larry. They also allegedly found a bag of pot.
Larry was arrested, but after a brief chat with the cops he was released. According to Sgt. Neil Munro the bag of pot was "seized for destruction." And when Emery heard of the Larry bust he said, "He doesn't work for me."
Indeed, Emery has enough problems without one of his employees getting nailed for possession. His battle for those business licences is far from won, particularly given his 2004 criminal record for trafficking in the evil weed. That too is insignificant compared with the extradition hearing Emery faces. But let's take these one at a time.
From 2001 until now, Emery has operated his various pot-related businesses on the Downtown Eastside without a business licence. As Emery sees it, former mayors from Philip Owen through Larry Campbell and Sam Sullivan were willing to turn a blind eye to the dope smoking and seed selling going on under Emery's roof. There were no complaints from neighbours and no street disorder he says, so everything was cool.
The licensing department apparently declared that Emery was basically running a political party, The Marijuana Party, and no business licence was required.
That all changed when Emery decided to expand his empire and applied for a business licence to operate a convenience store in the 300 block of West Hastings across the street from party headquarters, Pot TV and a "vaporizer room" where people pay a fee to consume pot from something called a "Volcano."
Barb Windsor, the city's chief licensing inspector, explained to the hearing panel that when Emery applied for that convenience store licence in 2008, he triggered a police background check. (The check happened because of a city policy that calls for such checks when a previous business tenant was found to be engaging in illegal acts. To stop one bad guy from taking over from another, this policy is applied to Downtown Eastside addresses.)
When Windsor ordered the check on Emery she found his 2004 criminal record for trafficking. Emery was busted when he handed someone a lighted joint at pro-pot rally in Saskatoon.
Anyway, under city regulations, any conviction within five years of applying for a licence that relates to the type of business the applicant wants to conduct is enough for the licence inspector to refuse the licence. When Windsor looked at Emery's smoky entrepreneurial history and was updated by the Vancouver police on what was going on under the Volcano, she rejected his application.
A year later Emery is in front of a council business licence hearing trying to convince three councillors to cut him some slack.
But all of this may be moot. Before the licence hearing resumes, Emery will be facing an extradition hearing. Those Drug Warriors to the south are after him for allegedly selling marijuana seeds through the mail to many American customers. They want him down there to stand trial where he faces up to a decade behind bars.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Times Colonist
Author: Allen Garr
Contact: Times Colonist
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: Dope and Hope Mark Hearing
