NEWS & LETTERS, August - September 2008
U.S. resisters in Canada
As a Vietnam era war resister who found refuge in Canada, I have taken a special interest in the plight of U.S. men and women in the armed forces who have made the choice to desert and seek refuge in Canada rather than participate in Bush's aggressions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Canada and Canadians welcomed us back then, and public opinion today strongly favors giving refuge to these courageous U.S. soldiers who refuse to participate in the slaughter of civilians for the benefit of an imperialist foreign policy and its war profiteers. However, the present Conservative minority government, its Bush lapdog Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and politically motivated refugee boards and courts have closed the doors to these soldiers, who have risked their futures by taking a moral stand on an illegal war. Approximately 40 refugee applications have been made to date, and the first deportation order has been given. No one knows how many U.S. soldiers have crossed the border into Canada; however it is surely in the hundreds.
The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration turned down the application of Jeremy Hinzman. Jeremy was the first U.S. deserter to exhaust all legal channels. He has applied to have a "pre-removal assessment" and also to be granted permanent residency in Canada on "humanitarian and compassionate" grounds. The pre-removal assessment was to determine if he faced "torture, death or persecution" if returned to the States. He is now ordered to leave Canada by Sept. 23. He is here with his wife and family, including a child who was born in Canada.
On June 4, the Canadian House of Commons passed a non-binding resolution, supported by all three opposition parties and opposed only by the government, which urged the government to allow deserters to stay in Canada. The vote was 137-110. Subsequent to the vote, the deportation order against Corey Glass, which had been scheduled for June 12, was postponed. But Robin Long was then deported and is serving a 15-month prison term in Colorado.
However, fear and uncertainty continue to haunt these young men and women, many of whom have been waiting in limbo for years for an ultimate decision on their fate. I have met dozens of them. Joshua Keys, who had served eight months in Iraq, in his book The Deserter's Tale: the Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq, tells a common story of being lied to by recruiters and enlisting based upon patriotic motives and a desire to serve their country. Once in combat zones, they learned that they were to consider every Iraqi an enemy and their missions consisted mainly in harassing and terrorizing Iraqi families; they witnessed gut-wrenching atrocities that forced them to reconsider the validity of their mission.
Those who oppose giving refugee status to U.S. war resisters argue that they were volunteers. This ignores the vicious reality of what these men and women faced and their right to invoke the Nuremberg principle regardless of the nature of their enlistment. It also ignores the reality, expressed by one, who characterizes U.S. military recruitment as "the draft for the poor, uneducated and minorities."
It has been heartening to see the work of a network of Canadians that includes many Vietnam era resisters that has provided legal, moral, emotional and personal support to these valiant men and women.
--Veteran Anti-War Activist
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