Thursday September 10th, 2015

Reverend Michael James Baldasaro

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/993415910692646/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NewdlcvH_QY

22 Minutes: Marijuana Party

The statement below was Brother Michael’s opening and closing statement on Cable 14 TV on April 19, 2011.

OPENING STATEMENT:

I have been running for Office since 1984, when Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Borkovich, dismissed my constitutional challenge to Canada’s Marijuana Laws and found me guilty of trafficking, a ”small amount” of Cannabis. Judge Borkovich ruled that constitutional changes to Federal Legislation must be made by Parliament.

Judge Borkovich basically sentenced me to challenge Canada’s Marijuana Regulations in Ottawa and for this I need your help.

The Marijuana Plant, Hemp or CANVAS, as its cloth was known and grown by farmers, throughout II World Wars, will revitalize our economy, make us independent and set us free from rising food and fuel prices.

Marijuana can clothe and feed our families. It will create jobs for everyone from farmers to sewing machine operators and all those in-between!

Today, Marijuana provides proven medicinal relief for suffers of glaucoma, lupus and chronic pain syndrome, to mention only a few.

We could grow, process and distribute Medicinal Marijuana, right here, to Patients whose Doctors prescribe it, rather than forcing them out on the streets.

I am not just talking about an old / new solution to some of our conundrums.

Sure, jobs are important, however, we must pay off our national debt and stop deficit spending or we will bankrupt our Children’s and Countries futures.

We don’t need to spend 147 million per fighter jet, and we are buying 65!!! We need to feed our hungry and house our poor!

We don’t need a war in Afghanistan. We need our Soldiers home to protect our borders from illicit intrusion.

We are not the Worlds Police and we cannot afford to send our youngsters to other countries to kill, uninvited.

This Country is run by dysfunctional people.

I ask for your support.

Please send me to Ottawa to solve these problems 4 ONE and 4 all.

Thank you in advance for your VOTE!

CLOSING REMARKS:

In closing, we may not agree on everything, but there is one thing we all can agree on and I ask you to join me in showing our love for our Country and sing our National Anthem!

O Canada!

O Canada

Our home and native land

True patriot love in all of us command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise

The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,

O Canada we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free

O Canada we stand on guard for thee

O Canada we stand on guard for thee

REPLY TO Ryan McGreal

Editor, Raise the Hammer

Dear Ryan:

Thank you for asking for my opinion on the issues Raised in your Questionnaire.

I reply to your queries as follows:

* Do you support some form of proportional representation instead of first-past-the-post voting? If so, what will you do to promote it? If not, why not?

A. Yes. I will do all I can to promote more and equal representation at all levels of government.

* Will you always vote along party lines, or are you prepared to vote your conscience on a matter in which you disagree with your party’s position?

A. No. It is the people of the Riding I will serve. Ultimately, I firmly believe that in order to have a true Democracy everyone would have to vote Independent. Abolish political parties. The mice have to learn to vote for mice and stop voting for the big fat Black Cats (the Conservatives), big fat White Cats (the Liberals) and the big fat Spotted Cats (the NDP). Refer: "Mouseland" by Tommy Douglas http://www.iamm.com/mouseland.htm

* Do you support Vrancor’s attempt to remove heritage protection from 150 Main Street West (the old Revenue Canada building)? Why or why not?

A. No. This is one of the few remaining heritage buildings we have left in Hamilton. If it is structurally sound it should be used for housing, health and/or other uses.

* Will you call for a full public inquiry into the 2010 G20? Why or why not?

A. Yes. Because we the people want to know and have full accountability.

* Do you believe global oil production is at or near an historic peak? If so, what will your party do to prepare Canada for declining oil production? If not, why not?

A. Yes. Turn to our farmers to grow hemp/marijuana just like we did for the war efforts to fuel our vehicles, cook with and keep our lanterns full.

* Do you believe human activity is contributing to climate change? If so, what should we do about it? If not, why not?

A. No. Volcanoes and manure alone contribute to global warming more than we can ever hope to effect. May I suggest watching "The Great Global Warming Swindle" @ http://www.garagetv.be/video-galerij/blancostemrecht/The_Great_Global_Warmin g_Swindle_Documentary_Film.aspx

* Will your platform promote the growth of manufacturing jobs in Hamilton? If so, how? If not, why not?

A. Yes. Just think of the jobs farming Marijuana/Hemp will bring into the area. Spinning Mills, fuel depots and manufacturing of farm equipment specifically tailored to this Industry and the medical equipment, supply and distribution of Doctor Prescribed Medicinal Marijuana. Let’s breathe the life back into Hamilton and make farm machines that feed us, right here in the Hammer! Wouldn’t it be nice to bring back our Civic pride in the Stelco Tower and refill it with the riches of this ready-set-go Industry and think of the tax dollars it will bring into the G.H.A., the "Greater Hamilton Area" or as Mayor Bob Bratina referred to it during the Mayoralty Debate of 2010 at McMaster University as "THE GREATER HEMP AREA". Yes. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! All we really have to do is start growing hemp/marijuana just like we did for the war efforts to fuel our vehicles, for food and clothing and for medicine etc. Revitalize this once booming industry and become self-reliant and self-sustaining . A chicken in every back yard and food for every table.

* Will your party take steps to make sure the foreign purchase of Canadian companies does not cost Canadian jobs? If so, what will you do? If not, why not?

A. Yes. Neither I nor my Party will form the government, that much is obvious. However, I can promise everyone one thing and that is, that I will urge that every purchase of Canada be combined with an agreement thereto which would be rigorously prosecuted. The so-called-big parties that talk the talk but, in the end, have to walk the Party Line and as history evidenced. Few will cross the line to think Independently.

* Do you believe parliamentary rule has been eroding in Canada? If so, what will you do to reverse it? If not, why not?

A. Yes. Parliament continually passes laws that the Courts have found unconstitutional. This is proof that Parliament is not doing its job. Perhaps there should be a means test, at least one a Candidate could point to as having passed? One that includes Charter Rights and Government Rules and Regulations etc.

* Do you believe the Federal Government is doing everything it can to complete the cleanup of Randle Reef? Why or why not?

A. No. Randal Reef is not a clean-up. It’s a land grab. Back-filling the Bay to create land on the grounds of past pollution is not a clean-up. It’s a Hide-up!

* Bonus question: please explain how the Prime Minister and cabinet are formed in the Canadian Parliamentary system.

A. Prime Minister is Leader of the Elected Majority and the Prime Minister selects the Cabinet. They all take an oath to obey the Queen. As it stands now http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/prime-minister-cabinet-canada elected officials are forced to swear allegiance to Her Majesty The Queen, Her Just Laws and Courts. To not agree to those terms one would not able to serve. It’s time Canada’s Prime Minister and Cabinet were sworn "by the people, for the people and of the people". Canada For Canadians First!

Be well and prosper,

In peace, bless us all

Reverend Brother Michael J. Baldasaro

Marijuana Party Candidate, Hamilton Centre

From: David Kumagai

Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011

Subject: OpenFile’s 10 Questions

Just a friendly reminder to try to answer OpenFile’s candidate survey. We will be posting all the responses on our site in the next couple days so please try to get your responses in by tomorrow. The 10 short questions are below and in the attachment. All the best on the campaign trail.

Thank you for including me in you questionnaire.

My reply to your queries are as follows:

1-Do you do any volunteer work? If so, what?

A. I do volunteer work for the Church of the Universe and in my neighborhood. I Maintain the Church Web Site @ www.iamm.com facebook and Yahoo eGroups I also give counsel to Church Members and direct those in need to have their Doctor refer them to DR. MARC LATOWSKY, 207-3447 Kennedy Road, Scarborough, On. M1V 3S1 Voice: (416) 332-2757

2-What is something people don’t know about you?

A. That, NOTWITHSTANDING ALL MY CONVICTIONS under the Narcotic Control Act and then later, under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, for selling small amounts of Marijuana to under-cover police officers, who lied to join the Church to make an arrest, that I AM NOT A CRIMINAL. I have never been charged, never mind convicted of a Criminal Offence and as such, I do not and could not have , what is considered in law, in pith and in substance, to be a Criminal Record. The only way a person can have a Criminal Record in Canada, is for that person to have been charged by the victim of the offence (marijuana is considered by most to be a victimless crime) and then only after being tried and found guilty of violating of an Offence under a provision of the Criminal Code of Canada under which the charge was laid.

Church of the Universe Persecution

3-What’s the last thing you watched on YouTube?

A. The Secret Rulers of the World [1-29]

4-Name one piece of legislation you would like to change and how?

A. The 1 piece of legislation I would like to change is Marijuana Regulations under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act HOW? By getting elected. You see, in 1984, the Honourable Mr. Justice Nicholas Borkovich, in the Superior Court of Justice at Hamilton, after dismissing my constitutional challenges to the then Narcotic Control Act, and then having found me guilty of trafficking marijuana, urged and directed me that the only way to make the changes to existing legislation was for me to go to Ottawa to effect constitutional change. He ruled that constitutional changes to Federal Legislation should be made in Parliament, not before a Court of Law, tying up precious Court Resources and time. THEREFORE, acting upon The Learned Trial Judges instructions, (call it my sentence if you like), I have been running for Federal Office ever since in the hopes that I can bring people together, bring attention to bear on this issue and effect change. Please help me finish my Sentence! IT’S TIME TO LEGALIZE AND FIX THE DEFECIT! NOTE: Fear of Marijuana is unfounded, in light of the Ontario Superior Court Rulings in R. vs. Christopher Clay, wherein Mr. Justice McCart ruled that “1. Consumption of marijuana is relatively harmless compared to the so-called hard drugs and including tobacco and alcohol…” (read all 10 findings @ http://www.iamm.com/judge-mccart.htm ).

5-What is the craziest moment you’ve experienced on the campaign trail?

A. I experienced two crazy, wonderful moments on the campaign trail. Twice, I was handed a joint (along with much good will) whilst standing in front of the Beer Store, collecting 100 nomination signatures as required by Elections Canada. What an unexpected surprise for this Government Licensed Medicinal Marijuana Patient/User, to receive not 1 but 2 donations of superior quality medicinal marijuana! The government of Canada suggests Patients get their Medicinal Marijuana from where ever they can and since I am not good at growing my own medicine (thank God it’s not T-3’s they want me to grow), and because the quality of government supplied pot is inferior, thank you God for sending some of your Sacred Herb my way!

6-Describe Canada in one word:

A. Dysfunctional

7-Have you ever run/worked for another political party? And if so, which one?

A. Yes.

a. In 1984/09/04 I ran in Hamilton Centre as a Libertarian Party Candidate.

b. In 1999 I challenged Joe Clark for Leadership of the Conservative Party. Cartoon: http://www.iamm.com/o-canada.htm and News Story http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/church-universe-founders-rev-michael-baldasaro-campaign-manager-photo-20110207-101931-392.html

c. In 2000/11/27 I ran in Hamilton East as a Marijuana Party Candidate.

d. In 2004/06/28 I ran in Hamilton Centre as an Independent Candidate.

e. In 2004/07/22 my attempt to revitalize and Re-register the CCF the “Commonwealth Co-operative Federation” started originally by Tommy Douglas, was thwarted by an election of the same time period. On account of the Election of 2004 being called on short notice the Rules governing the creation of a Registered Political Party were changed, without notice, just the day before I was to send in the required documents. The Chief Returning Officer of Election Canada. having realized this wrote me as Leader of the CCF and notified me that the application “is being held”, (and to this day) “in abeyance” pending my compliance with the new rules which were brought in upon its first reading, mainly because of the snap Election and need for the rules to be in place for it. The letter from Election Canada Chief Electoral Officer dated, July 22, 2004 is online @ http://www.iamm.com/ElectionsCanadaAmendment.htm

8-How do you find out about what’s happening in your community?

A. The Spec.com, The Hamiltonian, OpenFile, facebook, Raising the Hammer, CATCH “Citizens at City Hall”, The Zine and by partaking in Federal and Municipal Mayoralty Elections, as a Candidate.

9-How do you get to work?

A. I drive.

10-Where do you eat in your riding?

A. At home mostly and sometimes, usually in the morning, at The Delta Bright Spot Restaurant, on the corner of Balmoral Avenue North, and Main Street, East, one block East of Ottawa Street, for coffee and/or a gluten free breakfast and/or both. See our article on Gluten: http://www.iamm.com/gluten.htm

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6714971-michael-baldasaro-hamilton-s-high-priest-of-pot-dead-at-67/

Michael Baldasaro, Hamilton’s high priest of pot, dead at 67

‘True champion of Hamilton’: mayor

By Teviah Moro, June 9, 2016.

Hamilton’s own prince of pot and effervescent candidate for political office is being remembered as a kind and colourful soul dedicated to making his city a better place.

Michael Baldasaro, a longtime advocate for marijuana legalization, died June 8, 2016 in hospice after a short battle with cancer.

He was 67.

Baldasaro, a minister in the Hamilton-based Church of the Universe, made it his mission to help the downtrodden and disadvantaged, said congregant Rev. Juliet Boyd.

"He bothered with the people nobody else bothered with," Boyd said.

Boyd said Baldasaro had been coping with an enlarged prostate since last year but then became sick with cancer.

"I’m glad he finally passed. He was suffering too much."

News of his death sparked tributes from those who rubbed shoulders with him during his many campaigns for office — municipally, provincially and federally.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4722658-baldasaro-wants-your-vote-not-your-money/

Baldasaro wants your vote, not your money

Mayor Fred Eisenberger said he was "saddened" to hear about Baldasaro’s death, calling him a "true champion of Hamilton."

"His commitment to the city and his Church of Universe community was unwavering, but more importantly (he was) a genuinely nice man. I will miss his passion and good humour," Eisenberger said.

Terry Cooke, CEO of the Hamilton Community Foundation and former chair of the defunct Region of Hamilton-Wentworth, called Baldasaro a "fascinating political character" and "kind, thoughtful man."

But Baldasaro — who wore a long, bushy beard and knit cap — was an outlier candidate, an unconventional voice when it came to competing in mainstream politics.

His many stabs at political office began in 1984, when he ran federally for the Libertarian Party, and lasted until last year, when he sought a seat in Parliament under the Marijuana Party banner.

He also made a bid to run for the federal Tories in 1998, touting a 21-point plan that included offering pardons to those convicted on pot charges.

Born on Manitoulin Island in 1949, Baldasaro came to Hamilton as a baby and attended Delta Secondary. His father, Wallace, operated a major construction company.

Baldasaro worked in construction but didn’t follow in his dad’s footsteps, instead blazing a trail for marijuana legalization, his church’s holy sacrament.

"I’ve had my ass kicked by my dad. I have a great old man, he’s 89, and I’ve got family values," he said during a 2003 interview.

He held a number of jobs, including posts at Dofasco and Stelco. In the late 1980s, he told The Spectator a serious accident in 1967, followed by another in 1976, stopped him from working as a bulldozer operator.

Baldasaro and Walter Tucker, who founded the Church of the Universe in the 1960s, represented themselves in numerous court battles over pot, sometimes only dressed in red blankets secured with safety pins.

The pair took on other battles, as well, once mounting a legal challenge against the sale of the Ticats in the late 1980s.

The churchgoers found their spiritual home at Clearwater Abbey, a quarry on the 11th Concession west of Highway 6, where they swam nude and smoked pot until the conservation authority turned the area into a wetland to deter trespassers.

Dynamited out of their Puslinch sanctuary, the congregants found a new home on Barton Street East in Hamilton.

In 2007, Baldasaro, who had a litany of trafficking-related convictions, was sentenced to two years in jail for selling $70 worth of marijuana to a plainclothes police officer. Tucker got one year.

"People will not stop smoking pot even if we did," Baldasaro said four years later after the failed bid to have his church exempt from Canada’s marijuana laws.

"I ain’t leading anybody. Rev. Tucker and I are just fighting for our religious rights. It’s not like I’m building guns and selling them on the street."

Tucker died of heart failure in 2012 at age 79.

Baldasaro was viewed by some as a "fringe" candidate.

But his idea in 2010 for medical marijuana grow-ops in Hamilton’s industrial core hit the mainstream four years later when councillors asked staff to explore that very possibility.

Boyd said Baldasaro had become annoyed that federal efforts to relax marijuana laws were turning the church’s holy sacrament into a corporate commodity.

"It’s big business now, and that, I think, was his biggest beef with this."

But Baldasaro wasn’t a one-issue man.

He also looked out for the well-being of drug users, sex workers and the homeless.

"They shouldn’t be in jails. They need help. The police have better things to do than go after these people," he said during a 2014 mayoral bid.

Church member Karen Coruzzi will remember him as a big-hearted humanitarian.

He helped her escape a life of hard drugs on the streets 25 years ago, she said.

"He taught me to love myself," Coruzzi said. "He’s a great man."

Boyd believes Baldasaro knew deep down he wouldn’t clinch a seat in office, but he believed he could make a difference.

"That’s why he kept running."

His perseverance was admirable, said Laura Babcock, who moderated candidate forums that featured the witty "crowd favourite."

Even if he didn’t stand a chance of winning, he hit the hustings well-prepared to discuss the issues that mattered to him, she said.

"He understood the process and felt strongly that he should be contributing to it."

Boyd said it’s a shame Baldasaro never held office.

"He would have been a wonderful mayor, but alas, that’s not going to happen."

Baldasaro didn’t want a funeral, Boyd said, but the church plans to hold a memorial event for him in the next few months.

He leaves behind an uncle, sisters in Ohio and his son, Aaron, who lives in Vancouver.

"And all the church members who adored him," Boyd added.

In Baldasaro’s words:

"I feel the government and the Queen are violating fundamental rights and freedoms in the Canadian Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, and the Bible itself."

1982 — on Canada’s pot laws

"I went to get some marijuana for my mission, the mission of brothers and sisters … I don’t sell it. I give it to people. It’s my religion, that’s all."

1984 — on a drug-trafficking charge

"Conditions are horrible. They should be investigated."

1994 — on the Barton Street jail, where he was serving time for drug trafficking

"Put it in. The valley’s beautiful. I want to drive down there and look at it. The only way I’m going to see it is from the window of my car. They stole it from me when they put a golf course in there."

2003 — on the Red Hill Valley Parkway

"I’ve been around. A mayor is supposed to represent everybody. I know everybody from the little guy to the big guy."

2003 — on his criminal record

"I know I can manage these sons of guns. I was raised by my father. Everyone is ripping us off. We’re broke."

2014 — on getting tough at City Hall

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4722658-baldasaro-wants-your-vote-not-your-money/

Michael Baldasaro 1949-2016.

By Graeme MacKay, editorial cartoonist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUiTQuFE6SA

WHO is MICHAEL BALDASARO epicReel

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/michael-baldasaro-dies-1.3624152

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckj7yn1WkAEC9Qd.jpg

BALDASARO WAS KING OF THE POLITICAL FRINGE

Hamilton Spectator, 10 Jun 2016

The City’s Texture Is Dulled by the Passing of One of Its Most Colourful Characters

This city’s election campaigns will never be the same without Michael Baldasaro, who sadly died this week at age 67 after a brief bout with cancer.

For decades the pot-smoking bushy-bearded Church of the Universe minister was the undisputed king of Hamilton’s political fringe, a forerunner in a field which in recent years has become much more crowded.

Whether sporting his towering Cat in the Hat stovepipe or crocheted Rasta skull cap, Baldasaro’s presence and off-beat commentary provided a welcome touch of comic relief which never failed to entertain voters at town halls and candidates’ debates.

By my count, Baldasaro ran for mayor eight times, not to mention appearing on who knows how many provincial, federal and council seat ballots.

His final jaunt was in last year’s federal election as a Marijuana Party candidate in Hamilton Centre, which predictably was retained by New Democrat David Christopherson. Baldasaro came fifth in a slate of seven candidates, pulling in 348 votes.

But his most successful political outing surely had to be in 1988 when he racked up 7,528 votes in a two-man race against incumbent mayor Bob Morrow.

Though Morrow smothered him with 74,969 votes, Baldasaro not only prevented a victory by acclamation, he provided a valuable relief valve for any and all protest votes.

Over the years I’ve witnessed any number of people at all-candidates’ meetings who began by quietly tsk-tsking his irreverent ways but were soon laughing appreciatively at his sometimes politically incorrect solutions to the problems of the day.

Depending on the issue, Baldasaro could be right wing, left wing or just plain wingy. In his earlier years, he nearly always managed to loop whatever topic was being discussed back to criticisms of Canada’s restrictive drug laws.

My favourite personal memories of Baldasaro tend to revolve around his advocacy for the legalization of pot, which the Church of the Universe uses as a sacrament.

As I’ve previously noted about our election encounters, I fondly recall his brotherly offers of a joint if I ever found myself in need of some religion.

I also cheerfully remember the time Spectator editorial cartoonist Graeme MacKay called on Baldasaro at his church in a professional capacity and returned to the office with a tray of brownies made, Baldasaro assured him, by the ladies auxiliary.

Our straight-arrow editor at the time, fearing the police drug squad might break down the editorial page doors at any moment, insisted on throwing the brownies away before they could be sampled and shared.

Along the same lines, Baldasaro once brought a tray of hemp chocolate chip cookies to a meeting of the Spec’s editorial board with some of the fringe mayoral candidates. He assured us the psychoactive ingredients had been removed. I took him at his word, but decided to give them a pass.

There was always a clownish aspect to Baldasaro’s politicking, of course. But, intentionally or not, it usually played as satire. It’s as if his uncomplicated solutions to the city’s problems and challenges were deliberately sending up the conventional approaches and boiler plate responses of traditional candidates.

In recent years, others have tried to play a similar outsider role on the political scene, but so far nobody has come close to matching Baldasaro’s combination of good humour and human warmth. He really was a unique Hamilton character. We’re going to miss him.

The king is dead. There is no successor. And the city’s political texture is dulled by his passing.

Powered by MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

Pubdate: Fri, 10 Jun 2016

Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)

Page: A13

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181

Author: Andrew Dreschel

THE CHURCH OF THE UNIVERSE FOUNDERS WERE

PERSEVERING PIONEERS FOR CANNABIS LAWS.