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Marijuana activist Marc Emery's battle to avoid going to a U.S. prison got a boost Monday in the House of Commons.

Three MPs — Libby Davies of the New Democratic Party, Ujjal Dosanjh of the Liberals and Scott Reid of the Conservatives — presented a petition asking Justice Minister Rob Nicholson not to sign extradition papers that would send Emery south to serve a five-year sentence for selling marijuana seeds online in 2005.

More than 12,000 Canadians signed the petition.

"In Vancouver, everywhere I go, people make a point of expressing good wishes that I don't get extradited," Emery said Monday.

His removal order has been sitting on the justice minister's desk since Jan. 8.

"Nine weeks have passed and he hasn't made that decision, so something is keeping him from doing it," said Emery, who noted the Conservatives could score political points, especially with young voters, if his extradition is halted.

All three MPs told their fellow MPs Emery's extradition smacks of unfairness.

Canadian courts have established a person convicted of selling marijuana seeds should face a fine of $200. In the U.S., a person could be sentenced to life in prison for the same crime.

Emery, 52, and two employees were arrested in 2005 by Canadian police acting as agents for the U.S. department of justice. He is not facing a charge in Canada.

Reid, an Ontario MP, told the Commons that the Extradition Act states the justice minister "shall refuse to surrender a person when that surrender could involve unjust or undue or oppressive actions by the country to which he is being extradited."

Davies, the MP for Vancouver East, said she has found broad support for Emery.

"People don't understand why Marc Emery should be extradited. He was never prosecuted in Canada for these crimes, and I think people see it as a question of Canadian sovereignty," she said.

Dosanjh, MP for Vancouver South, said: "It appears to me that we have assisted a foreign government arrest a man for doing something that we wouldn't arrest him for doing in Canada.

"As a former premier and a former attorney-general, I sense a certain degree of unfairness in the process."

aivens@theprovince.com

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