U.S. arrests a Canadian!
So the American’s are now arresting Canadian political activists – IN CANADA! The RCMP picked up Marc Emery in the Maritimes yesterday “on behalf of the U.S. government.”
Is it just me or is this a terrifying step in the wrong direction? Last I checked (despite free trade etc) we were still a sovereign nation with our own laws and ethics and political system. Since when do U.S. authorities get to decide which Canadian CITIZENS can be arrested WITHIN Canada for alleged crimes carried out IN Canada!!??
Again is it just me or is the media not making enough of this rather shocking step? I, like a vast number of people around the world, consider George Bush a war criminal, maybe we should have him arrested and brought here to face charges. Just a thought.
7 comments:
I agree with you totally. I am so tired of the US thinking they are so great and can do whatever they want. We are Canadian, not American, and therefore follow Canadian Law. Canada needs to stop bending over and taking it in the ass from the US.
Aww, come on Auren! Okay, when I wrote that I didn't actually mean it. I was just hoping you might say yes. I'm enjoying the camera. It's pretty cool, now I got to pay it back and I'm hoping it won't take too long.
To be fair, the news report I read about this was that he was not being arrested for any sort of Political activity, but for selling/encouraging sales of/whatever of marijuana over the internet.
I agree it sounds odd. But if he's breaking laws in the States but none in Canada (see below), what do we do? Do we let him continue unmolested here in Canada? Or do we pick him up for the US?
I don't know any more specifics but that's an interesting debate - at least to me, since I'm largely unfamiliar with law. If you sell something illegal over the internet to someone in the States, but you live in Canada, who prosecutes you? Logically, I could see either side being the one to do it.
It would be different if committed some crime in the US and then went back to Canada. My objection is the fact that he is not breaking Canadian Law and although the US may not like what he is doing they should have no jurisdiction. As for the internet we are still trying to decide what laws are. The internet is an area which is lacking in definate laws on areas like this.
Personally, I think that the U.S. should have some rights in this particular incident. But actually crossing the border and arresting him on Canadian terrian is a bit extreme.
On a side note, I heard there was a car accident near Hanna in which three people were killed, and I was curious if you got photos of that. That must've been tough.
Al, the US didn't cross the border. The asked Canadian RCMP to arrest the guy for them, and are trying to get him extradited to the states.
I agree that the US technically has no jurisdiction, but I think it makes perfect sense for Canada to step up and arrest him. If a US citizen was in the States selling something stuff over the net that, if he did it in person in Canada would be illegal, you can bet we'd want him arrested. This is a pretty big legal loophole that I'm surprised hasn't been dealt with yet.
This isn't a crime Canadian authorities have ever been concerned with - it is an American issue, leave our citizens out of it, if Canada wants to prosecute that's a different story, but they're not, they're shipping him off to a country where he faces a MINIMUM 10 years!
What's next are we going to start sending our shoplifters to countries where they cut hands off? I hear somewhere they still stone women to death for being divorced, should we get in on that? We have our OWN laws and morals by which we live our lives and protect our citizens.
Should we ship people off to China to be persecuted for speaking their mind? I suppose some might suggest that is the sort of thing we did with Maher Arar, but I hoped that was an anomaly.
As far as the whole internet cross border thing, that’s an interesting separate issue that has yet to be dealt with. As far as I understand, if it's not illegal in your own country you can do anything over the internet, many internet crimes are illegal everywhere (childporn, hate crimes etc) therefore the local countries can prosecute.
And Al, no we don't cover car accidents, or news for that matter, just coming events and warm fuzzy stories.
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