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On July 15, Robin Long, a British Columbia resident
since 2005, became the first U.S. army deserter who sought asylum in
Canada to be deported to the United States. Now he resides in a
military prison in Colorado – despite majority public and parliamentary
opposition to the war in Iraq and to the deportation of war resisters.
The Canadian House of Commons voted 137 to 110 on June
3 urging the government to allow U.S. military deserters and their
families to remain in Canada as permanent residents instead of deporting
them to face possible jail time.
But the motion, moved by New Democrat MP Olivia Chow
(Trinity-Spadina), and backed by the NDP, the Liberal Party and the Bloc
Quebecois, and opposed by the governing Conservatives, is
non-binding. So the Conservative minority government led by Stephen
Harper is ignoring it.
In a surprise ruling on July 4, Federal Court Justice
Robert Barnes ordered Canada’s refugee board to reconsider another
American soldier’s failed bid for asylum. The unprecedented court
decision came on the appeal of Joshua Key, who served as a combat engineer
for eight months in Iraq in 2003. Key, a native of Oklahoma who
fled to Canada after deserting during a military leave in November 2003,
reported that American soldiers committed savage acts against civilians
and routinely killed innocent people in Iraq.
In addition, 25-year old Corey Glass, a former U.S.
national guardsman who was rejected as a refugee and ordered to leave
Canada voluntarily by July 10, was granted a reprieve in the form of a
new refugee board hearing. An interesting twist in the situation of
Glass arose when it was learned, in early July, that he was given a
‘discharge’ by the U.S. military – although a ‘discharge’ is not without
complications that can include re-deployment or jail time for refusal.
Another three hundred or more war resisters, some of
whom have already done one or two tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan
before entering Canada, still face military prison and other
penalties. The July 4 ruling of Justice Barnes could affect all of
them.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada
rejected arguments that the resisters should be allowed to stay because
the U.S. wars of occupation are illegal and immoral. The federal
judge, however, seems not to reject those points.
Thirty-five years ago, under tremendous pressure from
the movement against the war in Vietnam, the Liberal government of Pierre
Trudeau offered sanctuary to U.S. draft dodgers and deserters.
Stepped up efforts by today's movement can have similar results, as shown
by the vote in Parliament, and the federal court ruling.
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