'Citizen Marc' Busts Emery Myths

As the United States' midterm election votes rolled in late Tuesday, British Columbia's progressive Twitterati were not exactly happy. "Senate now has enough votes to pass Keystone XL pipeline approval bill," began the links, quotes and retweets. "Oh, America..."; "Grand old patriarchy now controls both the house and senate"; "...the Koch Brothers have literally purchased the best Congress they could buy."

Not Marc Emery. Freshly returned to Vancouver from American prison, the Prince of Pot's Twitter timeline was a healthy source of exclamation points: "Alaska votes to legalize marijuana 52 per cent to 48 per cent!" he tweeted. "That's Oregon, District of Columbia, Washington state, Colorado and Alaska with legal pot now!"

Marc Emery, leader of Canada's Marijuana Party, became an international figure when the U.S. government extradited and jailed him for selling marijuana seeds on the Internet in 2005. He's used the wealth amassed from his magazine, paraphernalia and seed business to fund drug reform advocacy around the world.

I read Emery's election night exuberance a few ways: certainly as a major payoff, having spent about five years transferred between Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana detention facilities. But also as a perfect portrait of Emery's shape-shifting, misfit status within Vancouver's political culture: not traditionally "progressive" (though willing to align strategically), and not necessarily local.

Filmmakers Roger Evan Larry and Sandra Tomc consider these shifting identities and personal mythologies in the feature-length documentary Citizen Marc, screening at the Rio Theatre this Sunday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.

"We were interested in him as a local figure, precisely because of those two surprises," says Larry. "He's not B.C.-grown, and he came out of this really right-wing libertarian tradition, which seemed anomalous for Canada in 2006."

"When we first started investigating, libertarianism was off the political radar," adds Tomc of the film's origin following Emery's 2005 arrest on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warrant. "We thought we were going to get this really obscure political scene of people who read The Fountainhead... The irony is that by the time we finished, it had become quite mainstream."

Who is this man?

Some know of Emery's Ontario roots and Ayn Rand obsession, but many haven't given his unusual politics and persona much thought. What's interesting about a years-long study like Citizen Marc is that each of these entry points can produce varied, unexpected audience reactions.

With so many gaps between his self-crafted persona (as entrepreneur, as Christ-like martyr) and the mythologies swirling around him despite his best efforts to dispel them (Marc the misfit, rebel or troll), there is just enough space to form a completely new opinion of the world-renowned pot activist.

"We've been traveling across the country with the film, screening in 15 cities over the last two weeks, and after reading reviews across the country it's clear to us that the film evokes very different reactions," says Larry.

"Some say, 'I used to like Marc before I saw your film, now I don't.' Others say 'I didn't like him, now I do. We've had some of his core supporters say 'I've always loved Marc, but it's nice to see him vulnerable for a change.' And then others say it's a hit job. Well, Jodie said that."

Indeed, Marc's wife Jodie Emery recently blasted the film on Twitter, accusing Larry of hating Marc and manipulating interviews. On the phone, Larry is in fact quick to praise Emery's effectiveness as an activist, while his partner Tomc is more skeptical. The film's narrative builds like an argument between them, balancing Emery's own self-aggrandizing story.

Some claims still unproven

Emery's grandiose claims about himself are themselves entertaining and informative: he says he's brought more money into B.C. than anybody else, that his mission to "overgrow the government" was prophesized, and that he shares a few things in common with Gandhi and Jesus.

"Having been around politics and people in power, Marc was not the first person with a huge ego I had met," says Larry. "Often people with political power have an ego and hide it, whereas he's made it part of his persona. It was so unusual and refreshing, and great theatre."

While it might seem easy dismiss Emery's assertions -- that he made $1 million in his first year of Cannabis Culture's operations, for example -- Tomc and Larry were not able to disprove them.

"We've never been able to find anything that indicated he had not made that money," says Larry. "Was it $1 million? Our biggest indication was Allan St. Pierre [of the U.S. National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law] told us in 2005 Emery was one of the top three donors [to the organization] in the world."

By the U.S. government's own admission, Emery's ability to make money was a threat. In a statement confirming that Emery funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in "illicit profit" into lobby groups, a DEA administrator wrote "drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

One more surprise, now see the film

Yet another surprise: marijuana was not the first cause Emery was willing to go to jail for. In the 1980s, when Ontario laws forbid sales on Sunday, Emery kept his bookstore open seven days a week, even offering customers a Sunday discount. After refusing to pay fines, he landed in jail for four days.

The stunts stack up from there -- detailed in early interviews and television hits that feature in the documentary.

"He was hungry for the camera," explains Tomc. Once out of jail, Emery finds another rule he can break to get attention, and exploits it again and again. "We even cut a bunch of London stuff. He was also central in stopping the Pan Am Games from coming to London. It went on and on."

As Emery's wife now makes a bid for a Liberal nomination in Vancouver East, the Prince of Pot may whip up more surprises yet.

Citizen Marc plays at the Rio Theatre Sunday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.