Long-Term Cancer Patient Has Struggled With Immigration Authorities for Four Years

A federal court judge continued over the weekend to mull an 11th-hour plea from American refugee Steve Kubby and his family, prolonging their four-year struggle with immigration authorities.

A former gubernatorial candidate in California for the Libertarian Party and international icon of the medical marijuana movement, the long-term cancer patient was tAo have departed Canada last Thursday.

But his fate is in the hands of Judge Yvon Pinard, who heard a tearful, last-ditch appeal from Kubby's wife Michele, who said she feared for her husband's life.

"To remove him from Canada is like removing a diabetic from his insulin," she cried.

Kubby was said to be too ill to attend the proceedings and remained at home with their youngest daughter, Crystal. Their oldest daughter, nine-year-old Brooke, held her mother's hand.

It has been quite an ordeal.

A medical marijuana user for a quarter-century because of a rare cancer, Kubby had his home raided in 1998, allegedly because he was growing and distributing pot to California compassion clubs.

The jury refused to convict him on the cannabis charges because of the state's Compassionate Use Act, which shields bona fide patients from state but not federal prosecution for marijuana offences.

Still, Kubby was convicted of possessing a magic mushroom and a hallucinogenic cactus, which were found during the police search.

The family, who believed they were being persecuted because of Steve's political activism, moved to Canada in April 2001.

In May 2002, Steve was deemed inadmissible because of the drug convictions and the family was ordered out of the country.

At that point, Kubby filed a refugee claim.

In November 2003, the Immigration and Refugee board turned him down. He sought a judicial review and, in July 2005, the federal court upheld the board's decision.

The Kubbys then applied for a final review under the immigration act -- a process known as a risk assessment.

Late last year, the immigration department said Kubby faced no extraordinary risk if he were returned to the U.S. and ordered the family out of the country by Jan. 12.

"There is protection for medical marijuana users in the U.S.," Keith Reimer, lawyer for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, told Pinard. "For [Kubby] to say 'I would be thrown in jail and allowed to die' is speculative."

I don't think so. I think Reimer and the government are talking about some parallel universe, not the reality in Bush's Zero Tolerance America.

There is no U.S. jail or prison that allows the use of medical cannabis by inmates. None.

And the federal U.S. government insists there is no medical benefit to marijuana. None.

And the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that stance.

As a result, Kubby is a lightning rod for attacks by Bush Administration drug warriors and their allies who are intent on maintaining the complete criminal prohibition on cannabis.

Yet physicians who have examined Kubby -- including those recognized by Health Canada --agree marijuana is uniquely effective in controlling his symptoms.

A leading expert on hypertension has testified on his behalf and Ottawa accepted all of this by granting Kubby an exemption from our marijuana laws to consume pot for medicinal purposes.

Pinard is reflecting on the family's request that he halt the removal proceedings and give them time to plead with cabinet and exhaust other legal avenues.

NDP Vancouver East MP Libby Davies has already written a letter urging cabinet to intervene and a campaign to win public support is underway.

"If the judge takes a month, as he has suggested he might, then that's effectively a temporary stay, which is what we were seeking," Michele said. "We will be using this time to appeal to both the Canadian people and the Canadian Supreme Court, if necessary. Nonetheless, the uncertainty adds to our family's stress."

No kidding.

"We have to have faith that this justice will do the right thing," Michele said.

"Living in limbo is better than dying in jail," Steve added.

I, however, see little reason to believe Ottawa will suddenly turn sympathetic even if Pinard gives the Kubbys time to make one more pitch.

For whatever reason, rather than chase down the hundreds of dangerous illegal refugees blithely ignoring deportation orders, the federal government prefers targeting the sick.

They're easier to catch.

Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Jan 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: sunletters@png.canwest.com
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
ACTION: Please See http://www.kubby.org/