brings three months in jail
Fourth drug conviction for Marc Boyer, who has terminal illness
Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, October 11, 2007
VANCOUVER - Former Marijuana Party candidate Marc Boyer has been
sentenced to three months in jail after pleading guilty in Vancouver
Provincial Court to possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking.
Judge Conni Bagnall ordered Boyer -- who suffers from a terminal
illness -- to be jailed, saying this was his fourth conviction for a
drug offence and the third in the last three years involving
marijuana.
Boyer ran as the Marijuana Party candidate in the Vancouver Quadra
riding in the last federal election.
He was arrested by Vancouver police officers July 13 in Grandview Park
on Commercial Drive.
The officers had gone to the park on another matter but could smell
marijuana and found a small group of people sitting in the park
smoking.
Boyer was seen trying to conceal something and police found 16
marijuana cigarettes under his leg. He was arrested and searched and
just over one pound of marijuana was found on him packaged, as if for
sale, along with $965 in cash.
The court was told that Boyer's cellphone rang and one of the officers
answered the call which was from a person asking for drugs to be
delivered.
Police found pamphlets on Boyer advertising home delivery of marijuana
and giving the number of his cellphone.
Bagnall rejected Boyer's submission that because his birth was never
registered in the usual fashion and he does not have a birth
certificate he does not "hold a person" under the Criminal Code
meaning he has "a void contract with society itself."
"He says that he instead 'holds a person' under the Elections Act. He
argues that this means that although Canadian laws apply to him he can
seek protection from prosecution for his beliefs in the fact of his
membership in the Marijuana Party. "Mr. Boyer's beliefs were the
subject of many of his comments. He believes that according to the
Bible, God gave all 'wind-pollinated herbs' as a gift to mankind. This
category includes marijuana," Bagnall wrote in her reasons for
judgment.
However, the judge, who said Boyer was unrepentant, dismissed all this
and said while he is entitled to hold any view he wishes about the
legality of marijuana, his opinion was irrelevant to the issue of
whether he could be prosecuted.
Bagnall found mitigating factors in sentencing were that Boyer was
terminally ill and used marijuana to ease the symptoms of his disease
and that he sells marijuana "within the loose structure of a
compassion club."
