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VANCOUVER (CP) - A California woman who has been denied refugee status and ordered to return to the United States to face marijuana charges was granted bail on Friday as she fights her extradition. Renee Boje's case was adjourned until Sept. 30 in B.C. Supreme Court. Boje, who fled to B.C. in 1998, lives in Vancouver with her Canadian pot-activist husband Chris Bennett and their young child. She said Justice Minister Irwin Cotler had ordered her to surrender to authorities for deportation. Bennett, who runs the website Pot TV, said Cotler's decision was based on politics. "He used my wife as a gold chip in the world of commerce with America to continue to ensure trade relations and other relations with America," he said. The California charges relate to a grow operation for a medical marijuana patient. Boje said the justice minister rejected her claim that she was the victim of political persecution and would suffer cruel and unusual punishment in the U.S. Bennett has said his wife could be jailed for a minimum 10 years because of her association with medical marijuana. "Humanity has a right to the plants of the earth, an indigenous right to the plants of the earth. All people have a right to the plants of the earth," he said. Boje's lawyers are appealing the decision of the B.C Supreme Court, which agreed to extradite her to the U.S. © The Canadian Press 2005 |
