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Newest Liberal lets up on pro-marijuana agenda
By: Allan Woods, Ottawa Citizen (CN ON), 03-05-05

Four police officers exit the Ottawa Congress Centre, the site of the Liberal party's policy convention. They are just a stone's throw from where Marc-Boris St-Maurice, the founder of the Marijuana Party of Canada, is smoking a cigarette.

"There's the boys in blue right now," he says, "for whom I have tremendous respect."

Four days ago, Mr. St-Maurice took to a podium on Parliament Hill to announce his defection to the governing Liberals -- to better push his marijuana agenda -- a controversial issue that has become even more passionate with the shooting deaths of the four RCMP officers in northern Alberta.

Yesterday, Mr. St-Maurice, 36, was quick to push his message that this is not the time for politics. Not even the time for debate over the evils of marijuana, he says.

The reaction was different -- almost defensive -- when news of the shooting deaths in Mayerthorpe started to emerge Thursday night.

Michael Ignatieff was giving a speech to the party faithful. Mr. St-Maurice walked through and paused to tell a reporter the tragedy highlights the dangers of marijuana prohibition. He said it was like Al Capone, the mobster who built an empire running illegal liquor from Canada to the U.S.

"Having spent the evening thinking about it, and talking to a few wise advisers, I have come to the conclusion that what happened yesterday has nothing to do with marijuana," he said yesterday. "It has to do with the security of police officers on the job.

"Today I'm really not in the most comfortable of positions to be discussing this," he said. "It's not the time. It's not where the problem is."

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