Jennifer Ridge Extradition

To the Honorable Irwin Cotler, Justice Minister of Canada:

We the undersigned Canadian citizens, express deep concern about the extradition proceedings under way against first time offender Jennifer Dawn Ridge. We believe it is very unsound for the government of Canada to take such an uncompassionate approach to this case considering the cruel and disproportionate drug penalties in the USA as well as the personal accomplishments of Jennifer Dawn Ridge since her arrest.

The current policy for extradition between the US and Canada leaves very little open for the lawyers to question or to take action upon. Such extradition practices do not lend themselves to protections Canadian citizens would get in our court proceedings. The problem with this agreement between the US and Canada, is that it assumes the US Government will act in good faith when prosecuting a case against a Canadian citizen. However, in almost all cases the US Government has engaged in uncompassionate prosecution against non-violent first time offenders, especially females involved with low involvement drug charges. For this reason, we believe it is unconstitutional that the Canadian Government should represent only the United States in such a preceding, rather than representing the Canadian citizen's rights who is being sought.

Our request is that His Honor Dr. Irwin Cotler of the Ministry of Justice, have a long look at Jennifers case and take a compassionate stand against the extradition of Jennifer Dawn Ridge and refuse to sign on humanitarian grounds, or decline to extradite Ms. Ridge on the ecstasy charge.