Hemp BC in City Hall's Kangaroo Court

Next hearing: Thursday, December 10, 7pm

By Dana Larsen

For some background information, click here
On December 8th Hemp BC had their first day of what promises to be a long and protracted "show-cause" hearing before City Council. This hearing is for City Council to decide whether or not Sister Icee should be granted a business license to operate Hemp BC and the Cannabis Cafe. She currently operates both businesses without a license, and has been raided by police twice since she took over ownership from Marc Emery.

This first day had the City lawyer questioning Paul Teichroeb, the City's Chief Licensing Inspector. As expected, almost all of the questions related to the activities of Marc Emery while he was owner of Hemp BC, and tried to connect Sister Icee's current ownership of Hemp BC with Marc because she was a manager of the store during part of Marc's ownership. 

Violating of agreements

The city lawyer also repeatedly violated the agreement which had been previously reached between him and Sister Icee's lawyers. They city lawyers had agreed to delete all references to criminal violations of section 462.2 (which bans bongs and pot-literature), and Sister Icee's lawyers had agreed to withdraw their Supreme Court application to have the city's hearings delayed until after Sister Icee's 462.2 charges had been dealt with in court. Despite this agreement, and the repeated objections of Sister Icee's lawyers, the city lawyer repeatedly asked questions about 462.2 charges.

At the end of 2 hours of questioning, Brent Lokash of Hemp BC's legal team had the opportunity to question Mr Teichroeb. Lokash asked the Chief Licensing Inspector if he had any evidence that Sister Icee had violated her agreement with the city by having Marc Emery be involved in the operation of the business after he sold it. Teichroeb answered no, and then when pressed, fumbled for a better answer, flipping through the police notebook in front of him.

Lokash didn't have the chance to ask too many other questions before the time alloted for the meeting ran out. The meeting chairman, councillor Gordon Puil, arbitrarily decided that the next meeting would be two days later, on December 10 at 7pm, since City Council had an opening then. Hemp BC's lawyers complained that they had all originally agreed that the next date would be January 26. Chairman Puil insisted that the next date be December 10 regardless of previous agreements, and even exclaimed "we'll do this on Christmas Day if we have to!"

Councillor Nancy Chiavario complained about this arbitrary change of dates and asked for a vote on the issue, which she lost. So the next hearing is Thursday, December 7 at 10pm, even though two of the three Hemp BC lawyers won't be able to come.

Farcical Proceedings

The whole proceeding had a very farcical and unorganized air to it. The hearing began 20 minutes late because some councillors were tardy. Chairman Puil seemed to have no grasp of how to run the hearing, and repeatedly said things like "I may not be the smartest guy around" and joked about Hemp BC's "slick lawyers". He was overheard during one cigarette break saying that he had "better things to do with my time than be here." This committee would ordinarily be chaired by Mayor Philip Owen, but he removed himself after accusations that he was biased, stemming from an interview in the New York Times where he said that Hemp BC would be "toast".

There was long articles in the next day's Vancouver Sun and Province, which will be available online shortly. There was also some radio coverage, but nothing on television.

Sister Icee asks that anyone who wants Hemp BC to stay open come down to Vancouver City Hall on Thursday December 10 at 7pm. The hearings are open to the public and it's very educating to see how ridiculous it all is.
 

CONTACTS

* Sister Icee can be reached by email at sisterc@hempbc.com, by phone at (604) 681-4620, and by fax at.(604) 681-4625.

* Vancouver City Council and Mayor Philip Owen can be reached at:  mayorandcouncil@city.vancouver.bc.ca
tel: (604) 873-7621,  fax: (604) 873-7685

* Vancouver Sun: sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca
* Vancouver Province: provedpg@pacpress.southam.ca
* Vancouver Echo: editor@vanecho.com
* Vancouver Courier: editor@vancourier.com