An article by Roy Berger in the Cornwall Free News detailing links between the Liberal Party and major corporate marijuana growers caught a lot of people's attention, but it lacked detail and references.

 

Following the leads he gave in the article, I have clarified and verified his findings.

 

No conspiracy theories here, it is all verified; the Liberal government's violent crackdown on cannabis is clearly intended to clear the market to make the new IPO start up companies the dominant players in the market, and most of those major players are in the hands of Liberal Party insiders. 

 

Chuck Rifici, who has been a member of the Liberal national board of directors since 2011, is also the co-founder of Tweed Marijuana Inc.

 

Based in Smiths Falls, ON, Tweed happens to be Canada's biggest full-scale producer of government-sanctioned medical marijuana. Others involved in Tweed include a 

Liberal aligned former toxicology researcher at Health Canada, Tom Shipley. as well as lawyer Marc Zekulin, who has had a good career behind the scenes in Ontario's Liberal establishment, working as a policy advisor for Ontario Liberal Finance Minister Dwight Duncan from 2008-2010, then played a major role in Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s re-election.

 

While Tweed is the largest company, it is not the only one of the 'big players' with major Liberal Party figures behind it. Former Liberal Premier of BC Mike Harcourt is one of the directors at True Leaf Medicine.

 

Herb Dhaliwal, once Federal Fisheries Minister under Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien is one of the founding directors of National Green THC

 

Former RCMP drug enforcement officers have also gotten in on the action, which is another probable motivation for the crackdown on locally owned dispensaries.

 

Long-time high ranking RCMP drug enforcement officer Tim Humberstone is now director of ABCann, which was acquired by Panda Captital towards the end of 2016. 

 

Another longtime high level RCMP officer who played a major role in drug enforcement is Jake Ryan, who became security director for Tilray, a major medical marijuana grower on Vancouver Island. 

 

 

REFERENCES: 

 

Cornwall Free News, Roy Berger, March 12 2017: http://cornwallfreenews.com/2017/03/12/dancing-with-the-liberal-insider-marijuana-czars-by-roy-berger-march-12-2017/

 

Vice News, Dec. 5, 2016:

 

Media Coop, Daniel Johnson, March 11, 2017: http://www.mediacoop.ca/video/daniel-johnson/36466

 

Ottawa Sun, Oct. 28, 20215: http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/10/28/liberal-cfo-could-rake-in-marijuana-money-with-legalization

 

Precedent, Sept. 1, 2015:  http://lawandstyle.ca/career/career-meet-the-lawyer-whose-office-sits-above-a-grow-op-2/

 

CBC News, Oct. 20, 2015:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/trudeau-marijuana-entrepreneurs-1.3280871 

 

Huffington Post, April 22, 2014:  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/22/george-smitherman-marijuana_n_5192382.html 

 

I-Politics, Dec. 7, 2016: ipolitics.ca/2016/12/07/toronto-board-of-health-wants-feds-to-allow-pharmacies-to-sell-pot/

 

Douglas Magazine, May 21, 2015:  http://www.douglasmagazine.com/the-modern-gold-rush-the-medical-marijuana-industry-blossoms-on-the-island/