Regarding Marc Emery's SmokeOut Tour event on Saturday, July 12, 2003 in Regina.

A lot of people have asked me what happened. For the more or less official report;
Here's an article on the Regina Smokeout Event

As the article says, "One arrest was for obstruction of justice, as a man layed his body in the path between the cops and Emery, and another arrest was made for possession."

I'm that first guy.

I've been a longtime fan of Marc Emery and his work. I don't really know him, our conversations and e-mails are always brief and relate directly to the work at hand.

At the time of the rally I had never communicated with him in any way. My involvement in the rally was limited to putting up posters and handing out fliers, telling people about it and explaining the court ruling, etc.

I didn't work out anything with him or anyone else that day. Didn't even speak to him at all until his court date in Regina months later. But I had been following his work for years and trusted his judgement and, more importantly, I fully trusted his interpretation of the Ontario ruling.

I thought about my own potential for arrest, knew that the charge would be obstruction of justice and decided that my defence would rest entirely on the legitimacy of Marc Emery's defence, ie, that marijuana was legal.

Since Marijuana was not illegal at the time of the Regina Smokeout Tour event, and since the police had been informed of the Ontario ruling and knew this to be so, I reasoned, the police were committing a crime by arresting Marc Emery. So it was not obstruction of justice because I was preventing a crime.

This reasoning all happened in the minute between having the idea pop into my head and going through with it.

I was standing there, watching the police standing in formation at the landing midway up the steps. I thought it just seemed too ordered, to perfect. I noticed the metal barrier between the two halves of the steps. I noticed that, if the side of the steps they were on was blocked, they'd have to break formation to go up and around. That would make the arrest less ordered. Besides, it was clear they were going to arrest him when he lit the bong, I wanted to be sure he had time to get a decent hoot before being stuck in jail for what I was assuming was the weekend.

Plus I wanted to get myself on the news.

The crowd started counting down to 4:20 pm, they were at 8 when I decided I was going to do it.

I changed my mind at 1, but didn't have the chance to back out as the feet started coming down on me, pulling up quickly in surprise. It worked. Order and formation were broken, Marc finished his hoot, etc.

I was arrested, taken down to an interrogation room and sat there alone for a long time. Then an officer came in and asked me a few questions, I told them exactly what I just told you and then they stayed the charges for a year. This meant that they could decide to charge me within the next year. This would depend on whether or not I got arrested for something else, and possibly whether or not Mr. Emery's defence held up in court.

Fortunately for me it did.

In hindsight, it was a mistake. If one of those cops had tripped and fallen face first on the concrete they could have been hurt. I'm glad that didn't happen, and if I do something like that again in the future it will be planned better to ensure nobody is endangered. But, then, it was a very unique set of circumstances that will more than likely never repeat itself.

Daniel Johnson