ANOTHER BRIGHT IDEA FROM OUR POLITICIANS

Commons to vote on motion to offer haven to American military deserters

16 hours ago

OTTAWA — American military deserters who fled to Canada rather than serve in Iraq hope Parliament will grant them what the immigration system and the courts have denied them: a safe haven.

The House of Commons votes Tuesday on a motion urging the government to allow deserters and their families to stay in Canada as permanent residents, as was done for the draft dodgers and war resisters of the Vietnam era.

The vote comes a little more than a week before Corey Glass, a 25-year-old Californian and former national guardsman, is supposed to voluntarily leave Canada, the first of what may be a stream of American deserters rejected as refugees and ordered out of the country.

Glass claimed he didn't see the national guard as an instrument of war.

"I signed up to defend people and do humanitarian work," he said in pleading to be allowed to stay in Canada.

The motion, brought in by Toronto New Democrat MP Olivia Chow, has the support of all three opposition parties and should pass handily.

But it's a non-binding resolution and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which wants to deport these people, is free to ignore it and likely will do so.

"Mr. Harper while in opposition, said that ignoring Parliament is an insult to democracy," Chow said. "If he chooses to insult the people of Canada and their elected representatives ... he could choose to do so."

The government says it opposes creating a unique policy in these cases.

"The creation of a special program just for deserters is at odds with our belief that every applicant to Canada should be treated fairly and equally, and that all should be required to follow our laws and rules and apply through normal immigration or refugee channels," said Mike Fraser, director communications for Citizenship and Immigration.

Supporters say there are several hundred former American servicemen and at least one servicewoman, living in Canada after deserting and fleeing north.

During the Vietnam War, at least 50,000 draft dodgers and deserters came to Canada and were given the status of permanent residents by the government of Pierre Trudeau. In an era rocking with the rhythms of Woodstock and marching under peace symbols, they came to symbolize Canadian opposition to the war.

But four decades later, with Canadians fighting their own war in Afghanistan, the latest fugitives are fleeing an unpopular war, not the conscription of the 1960s.

There is no draft in the United States and each of these "resisters" enlisted voluntarily.

"People do not join with their eyes closed," said Laurie Hawn, a Tory MP from Edmonton and parliamentary secretary to the defence minister. "If they do, then they have their own problems."

The retired fighter pilot said soldiers don't get to pick and choose.

"As for volunteer soldiers in the United States who have difficulty with the mission they are on, first of all, soldiers do not get to vote for which missions they go on. They are assigned by their legal government, which is making legal decisions."

But Chuck Wiley, a 15-year veteran of the United States navy who deserted after a tour in the Persian Gulf aboard an aircraft carrier, said it's not that black and white.

"It's a war that was based on a lot of lies and there were a lot of people that enlisted that believed those lies," he said.

And international law requires individuals to make their own judgments about illegal or immoral acts, even in the military, he argued.

"If you have the information available, you have to make the moral choice and act on it.

"What really carries more weight? Does a contractual obligation to commit criminal acts carry more weight or should I follow my conscience and refuse to commit those acts?"

Wiley himself is facing deportation. The Immigration and Refugee Board rejected his claim - as it has all the others made by American serviceman. The Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have all refused to hear appeals in these cases.

The refugee board's position is that people such as Glass and Wiley are not bona fide refugees. They face prosecution, not persecution, the board says.

They could face jail, said Chow.

"That means they would have criminal records, which means they would not be able to get jobs," she said. "They would not be able to get a mortgage. Their entire lives would be destroyed."