A Vancouver Island event is under pressure after an anti-cannabis activist threatened to shut them down.
Duncan Dabfest organizer Annissa Warner said she had just finished dealing with final event details when she received a message from the venue manager.
“The manager called me up and said ‘there’s this crazy lady threatening to phone the police if I don’t stop,” said Warner.
Warner said the call had come from Pamela McColl, director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada, who has previously pressured police on their dealings with the cannabis community.
Warner said she isn’t concerned about the event being disrupted but doesn’t understand why McColl got involved.
“I didn’t think we’d have any issues, but this really put the scare into the venue,” Warner said. “I don’t really know why she’s upset about something that totally, definitely doesn’t involve her at all.”
Warner aims to use proceeds from the event as a fundraiser for dispensaries and individuals disrupted by RCMP activity.
After learning of McColl’s call to organizers, lawyer Kirk Tousaw sent her a letter on behalf of Warner.
“You have intentionally and maliciously interfered with the fundraiser’s economic interests and the contractual relationship existing between the fundraiser and the venue in an attempt to have the venue breach contract,” Tousaw stated, in the letter.
Tousaw said if McColl did not cease and desist her actions immediately she would be held liable for any damages incurred.
McColl said she has had no involvement with the event and any claims she did were “slander.”
“I never called the venue – that is a lie,” McColl said in an email statement.
Warner plans to go ahead with the event this Saturday, under strict instructions from authorities.
“The RCMP have stipulated that the event will have no open product sales, but attendees are able to self-medicate provided they have a license,” Warner said.
Tickets are still available at select dispensary locations, from Warner and at the door of the Duncan event.