Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has ordered that Marc Emery be extradited to the United States, after a five-year legal battle over the high-profile pot activist's seed-selling operation.
Emery turned himself in to authorities in Vancouver on Monday. He could be handed over to U.S. authorities within days, and urged his supporters to penalize Stephen Harper's Conservative government if he winds up in a U.S. penitentiary.
"I think the best thing that could happen to our movement is that the minister decides, foolishly, to extradite me," he told reporters. "Canadians will be very, very angry and punish this government."
"If I'm extradited, I've told my supporters that every Conservative member of Parliament is to be hounded endlessly and unmercifully until they are defeated in the next or following elections," he said.
"It's to be a life project for them as long as I am incarcerated in the United States or Canada."
Emery was released from custody on bail late last year, while Nicholson mulled over whether to order his extradition. News of his decision was released Monday.
"The minister ordered the surrender of Mr. Marc Emery to the United States," Carole Saindon, a spokesperson for the justice department, said in a statement.
Nicholson would not be providing any further comment on the case, she added.
U.S. prosecutors alleged that Emery has sold approximately four million marijuana seeds online and through his magazine. They accuse him of shopping about three-quarters of the seeds to American customers.
In 2005, Emery was charged by a grand jury in the U.S. He struck an agreement with prosecutors there last year. Under its terms, he was sentenced to five years in prison while the other accused in the case were given probation.
He also continued to fight the extradition request and now plans to apply to serve his prison sentence in Canada, according to one of his lawyers, Kirk Tousaw.
"The United States has already agreed to support Mr. Emery's treaty transfer back to Canada to serve his sentence here," Tousaw told The Canadian Press. "We certainly would anticipate the minister of public safety would agree."
Emery could request that the B.C. Court of Appeal review the minister's extradition decision, according to the justice department's statement.
Tousaw did not say if Emery would pursue that option.
Emery is a veteran campaigner for the legalization of marijuana who has never refuted that he sells pot seeds by mail. He has been arrested in Canada many times, at one point spending three months in a Saskatoon penitentiary.
"I think of myself as a great Canadian -- I've worked my whole life for individual freedom in this country, I've never asked for anything in return," Emery told reporters.
"And now I will be possibly handed over to the United States for a five-year sentence for the so-called crime of selling seeds from my desk to consenting adults all over the world and the United States. I'm proud of what I've done, and I have no regrets."
With files from The Canadian Press
