Shady Deal Between The DEA And Revenue Canada

I'm unable to afford a fair challenge to my extradition.

I owed $1.87 more, even with Revenue Canada getting half of all my money for five weeks. And so it will continue indefinitely. Leaving me with $441.00 each week to live on, pay off five banks, and someone how to afford a lawyer in my extradition fight.

By Citizen Correspondent Marc Emery , Canada

Date Posted: 08/03/07

Reader Rating:

When I was busted by the DEA on July 29, 2005, a financial calamity occurred. From 1999 to 2005, I had paid $584,000 in personal income taxes as a marijuana seed vendor. Nonetheless, I was still about 12 months behind in payments, even though I was giving Revenue Canada $10,000 or $12,000 a monthy. So on July 29,2005, I was in arrears $140,000 to Revenue Canada. Additionally, I had $90,000 in bank debt too, as my seed business was a going concern generating $100,000 - $175,000 in sales a month, so I had five credit cards and a $40,000 line of credit. Here's the deal.

My deal with Revenue Canada is that they'd get whatever they were entitled to; I never used any personal deductions or any legal or illegal income avoiding tactics while I was in business. In fact, Revenue Canada did much better than me, because my company was in trouble from raids so many times that I had to lend it money - money I had to pay income tax on first.

Over the last two years I struggled to pay off all my personal debt, reduced the bank debt from $90,000 to $50,000, but I simply could not pay more than $250 a month to income tax. My pay in the last two years has been a steady progression from $300 a week in the first six months to $850 a week up to June of this year when Revenue Canada decided to garnishee half my loan repayment (I get $600 a week, money I already paid tax on, from the company) and half my wages from the store upstairs (I get $300 less tax less 50% to the Revenue Canada).

I just received my statement for the current month. $140,000 in July 2005 has, with penalties and interest, becomes $299,418.57 as of June 20, 2007

From June 25 to July 10 there were five weekly garnishees of $441.27 each, thats $2,206.35.

And on my statement it says:

July 20, 2007: Amount owed: $299,420.44

And of course, that is why I am unable to field a comprehensive challenge to my extradition.

Comments

>It's amazing who will kick

By The Friendly St..., August 6, 2007 at 10:04

>It's amazing who will kick you when you're down.

Friendly Stranger originally filed for it's trademark "Cannabis Culture Shop" in 1995 and then again in March of 2003. Long before Marc's current situation arose from his July 29th 2005 arrest.

>A retail store in Toronto has been trying to establish their ownership of the brand "Cannabis Culture Magazine"

This is NOT TRUE. We have been trying to obtain ownership of our brand "Cannabis Culture Shop."

>They have a relative who is a lawyer who launched this challenge to our ownership of the name of my magazine, so this challenge since 2003 has cost them nothing,

NOT TRUE. Our lawyer is not related to us in any way. www.advertisinglawyer.ca is our lawyer for the registration of our trademark. He is definately not free.

>but incredibly, we have had to pay $80,000 from 2003 to 2007 to defend our right to the name Cannabis Culture Magazine.

Sounds like you hired expensive lawyers. You opposed our registration of "Cannabis Culture Shop" a trademark we have been using since 1994.

>This is money that should have gone to so many other things.

No kidding. Same at this end.

>Why does Robin Ellins, the owner of this Toronto shop, want to own Cannabis Culture Magazine's name

He doesn't. We want to own our own trademark "Cannabis Culture Shop" which you opposed us registering. Your opposition to our trademark registration is a battle you decided to take on back at the beginning of 2003.

Robin Ellins

Robin is the one who is

By Marc Scott Emery, August 7, 2007 at 15:36

Robin is the one who is refusing us the name " Cannabis Culture Magazine". I have letters to our lawyer whereby Robin Ellins insists on the ownership of Cannabis Culture Magazine and on numerous occasions has written us insisting we pay him a licencing fee and that Friendly Stranger would own the name Cannabis Culture Magazine. We have no dispute about the term Cannabis Culture Shop, but Robin Ellins wants own multiple uses for the term Cannabis Culture and licence those names out to people at his profit. If Robin Ellins would state clearly in a letter to me that he renounces all exclusive claims to Cannabis Culture, then we're groovy, although I've already spent the $80,000 and we are certain to win this dispute in litigation anyway. He can have Cannabis Culture Shop, but thats all.

For two pot smoking dudes

By luyen, August 10, 2007 at 21:58

For two pot smoking dudes (pardon me if i'm wrong), the last two posts are quite funny if you step back a bit - copyrights, lawyers, profit...

It's a shame to see that even the mighty cannabis plant, cannot smooth over human relationships.

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