Dear Honorable Irwin Cotler,

I am writing to you in regards to my extradition case between myself and the US government. As you are aware, I am hoping that you will allow me to remain here in Canada where I am free and safe from the cruel and inhumane treatment which I will face if I am sent back to the US Federal Prison for Women in Los Angeles, California.

I would like to address two matters in this letter:

1. Before making your decision about my fate, I am hoping you will now also consider the fact that I am a religious user of cannabis.

Before meeting my husband, Chris Bennett, in 1997, while I was reading his first book, "Green Gold the Tree of Life; Marijuana in Magic and Religion" I had a spiritual experience which I now consider to have been an epiphany about the sacredness of the cannabis plant. At that point, I had been smoking cannabis for 4 years and felt on a deep level that this herb was helping me, not only on a physical level, but on a mental and spiritual level as well. The moment that I first consumed cannabis, in Amsterdam at the age of 23, I felt I connected with the spiritual essence of the plant and was filled with an overwhelming sense that this herb was connecting me with my own higher self or spirit.

Since I was a young girl I often contemplated what my higher divine purpose here on earth was and, in particular, how I could contribute to the healing of the earth. I felt that because cannabis was a meditative aid in helping me to connect with my higher self that it would also help me to find the answer as to what my higher path was here on Earth. So I continued to use it as a meditative tool. After a while, I realized that cannabis was healing the depression and anxiety I suffered from since I was a young girl as well and that I had lost my desire to consume alcohol or cigarettes, because I no longer found them to be productive substances in my life. I realized that this herb had a positive, healing effect in my life and began to view it with great reverence.

When I read Chris's book it validated all of my own personal feelings toward the plant and I felt strongly that cannabis was in fact "the tree of life", a sacred herb grown here on the earth for the "healing of the nations". I truly felt, in my heart, that I would one day meet the author of this book, which touched me in such a profound spiritual way and that this meeting would somehow be significant for my spiritual path.

In the Summer of 1999, Chris and I spoke, for the first time, over the telephone during a radio interview that we happened to be scheduled for on the same radio show back to back. Chris and I were briefly on the air together and I felt that this was a sign that I would meet him while I was here in Canada.

One day, I showed up at the Pot TV studios where I worked regularly on a show I hosted there called "The Healing Herb Hour" and while I was editing my show, Chris walked into the studio. The manager of the studio introduced us and said that Chris would now be working at Pot-TV. After working together, Chris and I quickly became friends, a couple of months later we began dating and in December of 2001 we were married. As you know we now have a 2 & 1-2 year old son together, named Shiva who we love more than life itself.

Not only did meeting Chris change my life, but as I predicted, meeting him was also significant for my spiritual path. When he and I met, we began using cannabis as a sacrament together and practicing Gnostic religious ceremonies together. A few months later, I became a convert in Gnosticism, which is the religion that Chris has been practicing for many years now. I was officially sworn into a sect of Gnosticism, known as the Church of the Universe by Chris who is a Minister of the Church of the Universe. Both he and I view cannabis as a sacrament and consider it to be a vehicle for connecting with the divine. We also feel that the sacred cannabis plant brought us together and when we were married we created a beautiful gnostic cannabis wedding ceremony together, done in the style of the ancient Hieros Gamos fertility ceremonies.

I ask that you please consider the fact that I am a religious user of cannabis before making a decision about whether or not to extradite me to the US to serve the mandatory minimum of 10 years to life that I face there. I believe it would be a violation of my rights as a human being to be sent to prison for something that I use as a sacrament for my religion.

2. I would like to address the letter that was sent to you by the Canadian Immigration Office, which I have included for you along with this letter for your reference, in which they state that they do not feel I will receive cruel and inhumane treatment if I am sent back to a US Federal Prison and that Amnesty International and the UN's current campaigns against the violence that women face in US prisons today are just based on a few isolated incidents and not an overall view of the US prison system as a whole.

First of all, it is shocking to me that the Immigration officers would even make such a statement after reading what the Amnesty International ,the UN and the Human Rights Watch reports reveal about the inhumane way that women are treated in US prisons. To me, it is obvious that three highly respected and well established organizations such as these would not condemn prisons for women in the US if they did not feel there was a strong need to do so. These organizations fight for the human rights of all people who live on this planet and it is unlikely that they would condemn anything if there was not sound reason to do so. If what Immigration Canada is saying is true, that these reports are just based on a few isolated incidents, I don't feel organizations like Amnesty, the UN and Human Rights Watch would waste their valuable time, money and resources fighting an entity as large and as powerful as the US prison system.

Second, after reading through the reports on the prison conditions that women are enduring in US prisons today, it is my view that the opposite case is true and that the reports are actually based on an overall view of the US prison system and not just on a few isolated incidents. I suspect that the Immigration officers who expressed this view to you are doing so because they want to please the US authorities by sending me back in order not to upset the political relationship between Canada and the US.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, which I have included with this letter for your reference, in US prisons, "male guards can take down or look over a curtain, walk into a bathroom, or observe a women showering or changing her clothes. Male guards are also allowed to do body shakedowns where they run their hands all over the women's bodies."

The following are some excerpts from the Human Rights Watch reports which show that sexual and physical abuse are rampant in US prisons for women:

"In Michigan, as in the other jurisdictions we investigated, the custodial sexual abuses and misconduct reported in All Too Familiar took many forms. Male corrections employees vaginally, anally, and orally raped female prisoners and sexually assaulted and abused them. In the course of committing such gross abuses, male officers not only used actual or threatened physical force but also abused their near-total authority to provide or deny goods and privileges to female prisoners to compel them to have sex or to reward them for having submitted to sexual acts."

"...male officers used mandatory pat-frisks or room searches to grope women's breasts, buttocks, and vaginal areas and to view them inappropriately while in a state of undress in the housing or bathroom areas. Male corrections officers and staff also engaged in regular verbal degradation and harassment of female prisoners, thereby contributing to a custodial environment that was-and as this report documents, continues to be-highly sexualized and excessively hostile."

"The issues in Michigan are in many ways representative of those facing corrections departments throughout the U.S. One of the clear contributing factors to sexual abuse in U.S. prisons for women is that the United States, despite authoritative international rules to the contrary, allows male corrections employees to hold contact positions over women prisoners, that is, positions in which they serve in constant physical proximity to the prisoners of the opposite sex.. male officers working in women's prisons now outnumber their female counterparts by two, and in some facilities three, to one."

I question whether or not the officers at Immigration Canada actually read through all of the horrific findings from the Amnesty, UN and Human Rights Watch reports, because why would anyone choose to send a woman to a prison which treats women with such cruelty and disrespect, especially a woman who is being persecuted for her involvement with a plant? We are not living in the dark ages anymore, when women were imprisoned, tortured and raped for their association with plants and herbs and often burned at the stake.

It is important to remember that many of the prison guards at the notorious Abhu Gharib prison held similar positions as prison guards in civilian life. There were also horrific abuses and torture acted out by US prison guards in a Texas jail this year, with their baton beatings and use of attack dogs on naked American prisoners, which were carried out because the guards claim to have smelled marijuana smoke in the air. This incident directly mirrors the abuses and torture meted out by sadistic “rent-a-soldier” prison guards at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. I have included a video for you, of the abuses and tortures which took place in the Texas prison, to review, along with this letter. (This Video footage can also be found on-line here: http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-2680.html).

I am also wondering if the officers at Immigration Canada have reviewed the report which was included in my disclosure package, which I have also included for your reference along with this letter, about the prison that I would be sent to if I was extradited to the US. This report was written by a prison researcher who has researched the prison that I would be sent to if I am extradited back to the US. In this letter, the researcher points to an example of a young woman who, in the middle of the night, was taken by force by some male guards in the prison to the male section of the prison where she was handcuffed to the bars and sodomized, beaten and raped by many of the male prisoners there as well as the guards, who initiated this violent act in the first place. According to Amnesty International & the UN, violence and rape are common occurrences in US prisons for women.

When I was first arrested and spent some time in that prison myself, I was shocked by the fact that there were male guards in a female prison. I had no idea that this was even allowed before that. I figured that would be against the rules in any humane prison system. I was horrified by the way that these men treated me there. Not only did some of these men watch me while I was being strip searched on two occasions that I am aware of, but they repeatedly made rude sexual gestures toward me and they also verbally harassed & threatened me by shouting out what sort of sexual things they planned to do to me if I became a prisoner there for good. I was terrified to be left under the care of these sinister men. It was the scariest experience of my life and I felt as if my very life was in danger. When I was finally released on bail the first thing I told my lawyer was that I wanted to file a sexual harassment suit against the Prison. He replied that the first thing we had to do was to fight the charges that were being laid against me, to ensure that I would not have to spend another day in that terrifying place.

In their letter to you, Immigration Canada also said that they felt if I was abused while in prison in the US, I would be able to deal with that issue there. But, Amnesty International, the UN and Human Rights Watch have revealed that most women who complain of abuse while in prison in the US are abused further in order to intimidate the women from speaking out again. I have included two Human Rights Watch reports on this subject as well as a newspaper articles on this subject for you to review.

The following are excerpts from the Human Rights Watch report which I found to be particularly frightening: "Virtually all of the women incarcerated in Michigan who were interviewed for All Too Familiar and who had lodged complaints of sexual harassment or abuse have suffered some form of retaliation by the accused officer, his colleagues, or other inmates. In some cases, they have also faced punishment by corrections officials."

"...loss of phone and visitation privileges, being locked up in one's own cell, or being placed in punitive segregation. After an inmate accumulates several violations, her security status may change with wide-ranging implications, and she may face loss of "good time" accrued toward early release."

"If a guard has been reported by an inmate for sexual abuse, he may turn to his colleagues for assistance in retaliating against her...As long as the accused guard does not issue the tickets himself, he can insulate himself from any suspicion of retaliating against the inmate." The tickets they are referring to here are given to prisoners as punishments and once a prisoner gets a certain amount of them, they are given a corresponding punishment which matches the amount of tickets they have.

"we found that women believed they were being sent a clear message by the guards and the corrections department: any attempt to protect themselves from sexual abuse by reporting it would result in punitive actions by guards. As these guards wield near-absolute power over the women, retaliation can be devastating to the women's security, health, and psychological well-being. We documented threats of physical harm, abusive pat-frisks, verbal harassment, and trumped-up misconduct tickets that resulted in women being denied visitation rights with their families and losing the chance of early release from prison. By failing to monitor vigorously for retaliatory behavior and to discipline guards and employees who participate in retaliatory behavior, the corrections department sends a message to both the women and the guards that corrections employees may abuse, harass, threaten, and harm women with impunity."

"Incarcerated women are not the only people suffering the consequences of the Michigan Department of Corrections' failure to stop sexual abuse and retaliation. Their families and, in particular, their children are victimized. A direct or indirect result of many of the forms of retaliation is that the women's visitation privileges are curtailed or, in some cases, completely cut off. This not only has a devastating impact on the women, who subsequently suffer social isolation and depression, but also on their children who suffer the adverse consequences of being deprived of the opportunity to build an ongoing relationship with their mothers and on family members who may be struggling to maintain family unity."

"Even as the number of incarcerated persons rises, remedies for human rights and civil rights violations are being legislatively and judicially curtailed."

"In December 1996 Human Rights Watch released All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of Women in U.S. State Prisons, a report documenting pervasive sexual harassment, sexual abuse and privacy violations by guards and other corrections department employees in state prisons in California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, and New York.1 The report also exposed the failure of states to respond to women's reports of sexual abuse and harassment. The failure was twofold: states failed to conduct impartial investigations of allegations of sexual abuse, and they further failed to protect women who reported these abuses to prison authorities, leaving them vulnerable to retaliation by guards." "Since the publication of All Too Familiar, Human Rights Watch has continued to receive reports of sexual abuse of and retaliation against women incarcerated in jails, state prisons, and federal prisons. We have been particularly disturbed by reports of an apparent campaign by some corrections officers of retaliation against several of the women in Michigan prisons who are active in the ongoing civil litigation against the Department of Corrections alleging widespread sexual abuse by guards and staff."

"In South Dakota, a class action suit was brought challenging widespread physical abuses against girls detained at the State Training School. The suit charged that guards routinely shackled youths in spread-eagled fashion after cutting off their clothes, sprayed them with pepper spray while naked, and routinely placed them in isolation for twenty-three hours each day for extended periods. Although the state government conducted an investigation of juvenile detention facilities in 1999, it did not implement any reforms to end abusive policies and practices."

"Sexual abuse against women by correctional officers remained widespread despite new laws prohibiting it and greater public awareness of the problem. A U.S. government study in December 1999 found pervasive allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct by corrections officers. Criminal prosecutions of abusive staff appeared to increase."

"In Michigan, however, legislators passed a law that took effect in March that exempted prisoners from the protection of the state civil rights act, which prohibits discrimination based on race and gender. Through this legislation, Michigan suppressed prisoners' efforts to seek redress for sexual abuse through lawsuits against the Corrections Department"

"In California, although a law went into effect in January that increased the criminal penalties for sexual misconduct, the state failed to ensure that women could safely report abuse. Women prisoners in one California prison, for example, claimed that their cells were ransacked and personal items damaged or taken after they reported abuse. Others reported being held in "protective" custody pending investigation of their "allegation."

"...the Prison Litigation Reform Act, that bars lawsuits by inmates seeking damages for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody where there is no proof of significant physical injury."

"Under the court's ruling, inmates cannot sue for humiliation, mental torture or non-physical sadistic treatment by guards unless, in effect, they have broken bones or blood to show for it."

I have also included along with this letter, for your review, a copy of a short article which appeared in the newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, in August of 2002 and which focuses on how the media and legal workers are now barred from California prisons. I found the following excerpts to be particularly revealing:

for now, the California Department of Corrections is proposing to place another brick in the wall surrounding our 33 state prisons -- this time barring certain legal workers and advocates from meeting with their clients behind bars. If the goals are to shield prisons from public oversight and limit the poor's access to the courts, the state is right on track with regulations that would ban most nonprofit advocacy groups from working inside state prisons."

"The proposed regulations go on to compromise attorney-client confidentiality, permitting the state to visually monitor meetings between prisoners and non-lawyer legal representatives."

"These organizations provide important tools and assistance to prisoners and are often the only link a prisoner has to the few human rights protections still afforded them."

"With the media and now legal workers increasingly barred from California's prisons, one has to wonder if there's anyone left to monitor what goes on inside."

I am certain that if I am returned to the US authorities I will be forced to serve decades of my life in federal prison. I am sure that I would be given a much longer sentence then the 10 year mandatory minimum sentence that I am guaranteed to serve there. Remember I can receive up to life and in the US, once a person is considered a fugitive, if the US authorities manage to catch that person, they always add much more time to their sentence. I am also certain that the guards in the prison would retaliate against me for speaking out about the violence that is infilicted upon women in US prisons today.

I ask that you please review again all of the details of the Amnesty International and the UN reports on the violence that women face in US prisons today and that you consider my own well being because I fear for my life if I am sent to a US prison. I do not believe I would withstand this type of torture and cruelty. I do not feel that any woman should have to endure such archaic, inhumane and violent conditions. I believe it would shock the conscience of the Canadian public to send me to a prison system as dark and dangerous as the American prison system. I pray with every fiber of my being that you will allow me to remain here in Canada where I am safe. I could not bear to be separated from my husband, my son, my friends and the life I have created for myself here. I want nothing more than to be able to live here in this beautiful country which I have grown to love so much and which I would be proud to call my home.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Renee Boje

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