Browsing: Blog

Sunday, February 12: The cruelties just pile up here at D. Ray James. Jodie just visited me and there’s a new rule: NO Holding Hands! Wow! After being able to hold hands during the entire visits at Sea-Tac FDC in Seattle, and during Jodie’s first five visits to DRJ, we could hold hands the entire visit. This new rule is very distressing and disappointing.

I remember Irwin Cotler, Canada’s Justice Minister in the twilight of Paul Martin’s Liberal government, commenting that Canadians had developed a culture of tolerance for marijuana use in the nation. This was on the heels of the Senate Committee urging marijuana legalization, my 2003 Summer of Legalization Tour across all ten provinces of Canada, and our 6-3 Supreme Court loss attempting to find Canada’s marijuana prohibition laws unconstitutional.

February 1st to 8th, 2011: I’ve decided to write about some of the improvements here at D. Ray James Correctional Facility, because there are actually a few good things happening. However, readers are urged to remember that they are small signs of progress in an otherwise exasperating, punitive, irrational place. Hopefully, in time and with perseverance, the rest of the problems will be corrected too.

January 24th-31st, 2011: In one of my previous blogs I wrote that the Chaplain was getting 25 guitars for a music program similar to other prisons where inmates have regular and easy access to instruments to play. This was the understanding of Randy, a Canadian here from New Westminster (near Vancouver) whose music business associations back home had his Canadian musician friends offer 25 Spanish guitars to DRJCI for inmate use, since hundreds of inmates here are musicians. The management here turned down this offer to have 25 guitars donated free to D. Ray James, no explanation offered.

Newsletter #2, January 21st to 28th 2011 – I just finished reading a 450-page adventure novel, "Pirates of Savannah" written by a fellow Libertarian. It’s a fun read about the early settlers of the area along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, taking place in the years 1720-1740. It’s a story of struggle by ordinary (but heroic & brave) folk (all prisoners from English jails released to go to the “New World”) vs. the King of England and villainous lackeys, referred to as “lobsterbacks”, “Red-coats” and other harsher terms.

[Editor's note: Marc has begun writing regular "newsletters" that he photocopies and mails to supporters who write to him. We are posting these newsletters online as part of Marc's blog. Find out more about Marc Emery, including how to help bring him home to Canada, and how to send him a letter, at www.FreeMarc.ca. Marc's blogs are also posted at FreeMarc.ca]

Dearest Jodie: Last Thursday at 10am in Nevada Southern Detention Centre, a guard said, "Emery, roll up!", which meant I was outbound. I was taken with about 100 others to a series of tiny cells, where I waited until 3am (17 hours) to be chained with leg irons and handcuffs secured to a chain around my stomach, then put on a bus to Las Vegas airport.

Dearest Sweet Wife Jodie: I was going to write a historically accurate but bitter screed about the genocidal tendencies of our American and Canadian rulers, regarding the meaning of Columbus Day (Monday in the US) and Thanksgiving Day (Monday in Canada), and you've already got half of it in a letter I wrote you in that theme... but it's just not how I'm feeling anymore. I'm optimistic and in a much better mood now!
Activism

Dear Jodie: I was saddened to hear the tragic news that Michelle Rainey is possibly just weeks away from dying from her melanoma and lymphatic cancer, which has now reached critical proportions throughout her body. She's only 39. Melanoma is such a vicious cancer, and cancer has been terrible on her brother, killing him young, and affecting others in her family.

Dearest Jodie: After I saw you Sunday for our perfectly lovely visit (smashing dress you had on), I was informed I was moving from unit DB to another unit. I thought, uh-oh, what did I do, but it wasn't punishment at all, it was to unit FA, which is kind of a waiting unit for inmates who have been designated to their federal prison. So I've been designated!
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