It appears Canada’s best-known cannabis activists will not be in Spain this weekend to attend a pot festival.
Marc Emery, 59, and his wife, Jodie, 32, were arrested Wednesday night at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, made a brief appearance in court on Thursday, and spent Friday awaiting a bail hearing following several delays, including the illness of a justice of the peace presiding over the case.
A new justice of the peace was expected to deal with the case Friday afternoon.
Marc Emery faces 15 charges, including conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of proceeds of crime. Jodie Emery is charged with five similar counts.
The Emerys own the Cannabis Culture brand, which is used by a chain of 19 marijuana dispensaries in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
Their arrest came hours before police raided five Cannabis Culture dispensaries in Toronto, one each in Vancouver and Hamilton, as well as private residences in Toronto, Stoney Creek, Ontario and Vancouver.
Three other people were also charged as part of the Toronto police-led pot offensive called Project Gator.
Police have not said why they staged the raids, which come as the federal government continues to debate how to best legalize and regulate access to marijuana.
Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott said Thursday that the federal government remains committed to introducing legislation on the matter this spring.
The Vancouver-based Emery, known as Canada’s “Prince of Pot,” has been a long-time advocate of international cannabis policy and reform and has also protested against Sunday shopping laws, obscenity laws, political endorsement of sporting events, Canadian censorship and several taxes.
Emery has been jailed several times, most notably in 2009 when he served over four years of a five-year sentence in a United States federal prison for selling mail-order cannabis seeds into the U.S.
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