|
wingnutx

Registered: 09/24/00
Posts: 2,283
|
Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill
#1830713 - 08/19/03 04:52 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill
Ottawa -- A group of back-bench Liberals privately tried to enlist the U.S. deputy drug czar last month to help stop federal plans to decriminalize marijuana, a memo from a Canadian official in the meeting says. The memo, which comes out of a July 8 gathering in Ottawa with Dr. Barry Crane and other U.S. officials, says the MPs expressed deep concern about the bill and wanted the United States to stop it. In interviews yesterday, MPs who were there denied the suggestions.
According to minutes of the meeting, a written copy of which was seen by The Globe and Mail, one of the MPs said the U.S. drug officials could help halt the bill by warning Canada about potential difficulties at the border and with trade if it were passed.
Another MP was quoted as saying that Dr. Crane and his officials should return to Washington to tell their superiors that they should make the consequences of passing the legislation clear to Canada.
The meeting took place at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa.
"All attendees were highly critical of the proposed cannabis reform bill," said the memo, whose author's name is blocked out.
"The apparent aim of the members of the meeting was to solicit the help of U.S. officials to defeat the cannabis reform bill. Members expressed many now-familiar concerns with the proposal (no provision for repeat offenders, sends the wrong message, lack of driving test, etc.)."
The memo says that MP Dan McTeague, who helped organize the effort, told Dr. Crane to tell his boss "that he needed to be clear with Canada about the consequences of this action. This view was particularly expressed by [MP Brenda] Chamberlain, who appeared to suggest that U.S. officials needed to tie trade and border issues to this bill in order to defeat it."
The director of Dr. Crane's office is John Walters.
The memo said that Mr. McTeague conveyed "the obvious implication that the only thing that would stop it was U.S. influence."
Mr. McTeague also gave the U.S. officials a written memo that catalogued inadequacies in the bill, the memo said.
A Canadian Foreign Affairs official who attended the meeting made the notes, a source who would not give the person's name said.
The memo said that two Foreign Affairs officials were at the meeting at the beginning, but that Mr. McTeague asked one to leave and appeared to be unaware of the second.
Mr. McTeague, who has deep difficulties with the proposal, confirmed that some concern was expressed at the meeting, but said its main goal was to exchange views on the bill.
"It think the [meeting] was very productive. It talked very abundantly and very openly about the limitations as enforcement currently exists. We talked about the amount [of marijuana] that would be generated -- given the minister's own admission there would be an increase in its use -- and that the THC level of the product coming come from Canada, that this was having an impact." (THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, is marijuana's active ingredient.)
Mr. McTeague denied saying that Dr. Crane should tell his bosses about the consequences of passing the bill.
"That doesn't sound right. I don't know who wrote that," he said. "I wouldn't have to say something like that, I've been very clear as to what I believe are the concerns." He called the notes "nonsense."
"The frank reality is that members of Parliament -- several members of Parliament -- have a keen interest in this issue. . . . The last thing that I want to do is to have a situation which goes from bad to worse, such that it would see the tightening of the borders."
Mr. McTeague did acknowledge asking one of the Foreign Affairs officials to leave, saying the meeting was for MPs only.
MP Roger Gallaway, who was also at the meeting, said he didn't recall Mr. McTeague making the statements that the memo attributes to him, nor did anyone else say anything controversial.
He said the presence of a Foreign Affairs official likely would have constrained MPs.
He also said that if Ms. Chamberlain uttered anything akin to the remarks that appeared in the memo, it was in an aside to her MP colleagues and to the U.S. officials.
http://www.globeandmail.com/
|
Azmodeus
Seeker

Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 3,392
Loc: Lotus Land!! B.C.
Last seen: 19 years, 1 month
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: wingnutx]
#1830725 - 08/19/03 04:56 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
"The memo, which comes out of a July 8 gathering in Ottawa with Dr. Barry Crane and other U.S. officials, says the MPs expressed deep concern about the bill and wanted the United States to stop it."
Oh god, how embarasing....
-------------------- "Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source. Lest we forget. "
|
Rono
DSYSB since '01


Registered: 01/25/01
Posts: 16,259
Loc: Calgary, Alberta
Last seen: 11 months, 12 days
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: wingnutx]
#1830742 - 08/19/03 05:00 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Those pricks that are responsible for involving the U.S. in our affairs need to be drawn and quartered.
-------------------- "Life has never been weird enough for my liking"
|
Azmodeus
Seeker

Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 3,392
Loc: Lotus Land!! B.C.
Last seen: 19 years, 1 month
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: Rono]
#1830752 - 08/19/03 05:03 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
I mean you'd think they'd talk to thier government about it....that pisses me off! spineless gutless pricks....nothing but a bunch of tony blairs!
-------------------- "Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source. Lest we forget. "
|
wingnutx

Registered: 09/24/00
Posts: 2,283
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: Rono]
#1830768 - 08/19/03 05:11 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
I agree. Clean house.
|
luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?



Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: Rono]
#1830769 - 08/19/03 05:11 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Rono said: Those pricks that are responsible for involving the U.S. in our affairs need to be drawn and quartered.
Get over it. You'll be a state soon enough! Neither you, your new bride , or your monkey army can stop us! We'll take your resources, your money, your women, well keep the women if they all look like your new bride, but we'll take all the rest.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
|
wingnutx

Registered: 09/24/00
Posts: 2,283
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#1830779 - 08/19/03 05:14 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
They should kick those MPs in the nuts.
While nut-kickings are being handed out, send some to each any every person who drags 'world opinion' into US policy decisions.
|
Rono
DSYSB since '01


Registered: 01/25/01
Posts: 16,259
Loc: Calgary, Alberta
Last seen: 11 months, 12 days
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: wingnutx]
#1830807 - 08/19/03 05:21 PM (20 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
And the same to those that force U.S. Policy on the world...
-------------------- "Life has never been weird enough for my liking"
|
wingnutx

Registered: 09/24/00
Posts: 2,283
|
Re: Canada: MP Group Sought U.S. Help To Derail Pot Bill [Re: Rono]
#1830830 - 08/19/03 05:31 PM (20 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
You'd better hope we never run out of ice or seals down here...
|
|