Posted on 08/19/2003 8:39:25 AM PDT by Wolfie
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.
I'm somewhat confused about this....does the word "liberal" mean something different in the Great White North?
If not, some of our most cherished and lovable WOD FReepers are liberals.
Several of 'em are well nkown on FR as gun-grabbers.
You're right. When making a decision like this, the Canadian parliment has no need to know how the U.S. will react to the wording of the measure.
Damn the consequences!
Red herring. The very first words of the article make it clear that this was baout much more than 'know how the U.S. will react':
"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".
LOL! And I suppose that the accounts of "Baghdad Jim" McDermott's attempts to save Saddam's ass were just "one side of the story".
See post #17.
The above is from post #17.
You said the intent was to stop; this just confirms that the intent is to inform.
I'm right, you're wrong, what's new.
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