The Little Brown Reader

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Earlier this year, Michele Kubby acted as her own lawyer in hearings before an immigration judge. The Kubbys are seeking official refugee status. They argue that Steve would die in America if he was sent back to face incarceration or other actions relating to his earlier conviction, because authorities will not guarantee him access to medpot. They also claim they would be victims of political persecution as individuals, and as part of a persecuted minority - pot smokers - who are targets of a "genocidal" US-government war. If the Kubbys win refugee status, it will be historic, because the ruling will in effect mean that the Canadian government has acknowledged that the US is a country that routinely violates the human rights of its citizens.

The refugee hearings were contentious and controversial, with government lawyers accused of lying by the Kubbys. Michele Kubby, who has no formal training as a lawyer, won plaudits from attorneys for her skillful attacks on the government's attempts to send her and her family back to the United States, and for her spirited defense of the Kubbys' right to stay in Canada.