Canada and the State Department have defaulted in hip-hop label owner Jerome Almon's $900 million lawsuit against them and according to the Murdercap Records CEO, have done so to avoid "devastating documentation" of the country's racial profiling practices.
As SOHH previously reported, Almon recently filed a suit alleging "wholesale profiling" of rappers and African-Americans by Canadian border officials, claiming that along with himself, numerous rappers including 50 Cent, Eminem and DMX have either been turned away or faced lengthy interrogations at Canadian borders.
"They [Canada] don't know what to do right now, because I know what they've pulled," Almon told SOHH exclusively regarding the default. "If I'm a liar, why don't they just call me a liar? They won't do it. The documentation speaks for itself."
Almon says that Canada's attack on African-Americans and rappers is partly an effort to blame them for the increased gang **** and gun murders in Toronto and Vancouver. He called Canada's border stance racist and hypocritical, arguing that pedophiles and terrorists are allowed into the country while hip-hop stars are excluded.
"America and Canada don't have a hip-hop problem, they have a black problem," he said. "A two-dimensional black problem."
Last year, Canadian authorities sought to ban 50 Cent and other "gangster" rappers from performing in the country. Almon claims those same authorities also drew up Bills C-254 and C-95, which would ban all U.S. rappers and their CDs from Canada by categorizing hip-hop as hate speech.
Almon has even set up a Web site at abadraponmurdercap.com with information that he claims documents the discrimination, while also defending hip-hop culture.
Melisa Leclerc, a spokesperson for Stockwell Day, Canada's minister of public safety, declined to comment to SOHH on the specifics of the case, but she did say that the Canadian government is "committed to ensuring the fair treatment of all travelers to Canada." She also maintains that the criteria and indicators used by the country's border services officers do not discriminate on grounds protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The lawsuit - which was prepared by the chief of Detroit's American Civil Liberties Union (****) - also names US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Jay-Z, Olivia, Colin Powell, Toronto Mayor David Miller and Spike Lee, among others, as witnesses.
Almon claims that Rice is in collusion with the Canadian government despite knowledge of the country's racial profiling practices.
Because the defendants named in the suit did not respond within the allotted period of time - in this case, 60 days - Almon can now seek a default judgment, which involves the court **** on the case and potentially awarding him up to the full amount of his claim, and possibly legal fees. Almon said he expects to be awarded the full $900 million and will not consider dropping the suit in exchange for a settlement.
"The only way they can stop me from taking that money is if I'm ****," he said. "They know what they've done."
