Today, close to two hundred U.S. war resistors who reside in Canada are facing an uncertain future. Their actions are a rejection of George Bush’s illegal and immoral war against Iraq.
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Presently, the conservative pro-Bush minority government in Canada has begun a campaign to deport these young men and women from the United States who have refused to participate in the killing and abuse of the victims of U.S. imperialism, its corporate-motivated drive for profits and hegemony in the region.
Private Robin Long, who had fled to Canada to avoid participating in U.S. war crimes in Iraq, was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Aug. 22 after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of desertion. Long told a military judge that he left the country over moral objections to what he called an illegal war. Prosecutors argued that he had abandoned his duty and his country upon fleeing to Canada in 2005. Long was arrested in Nelson British Colombia in July. Canadian authorities denied his request for refuge and deported him. He was the first resistor to the war in Iraq to be sent out of Canada.
The Canadian government has also ordered the deportation of Jeremy Hinzman by Sept. 23 and has rejected his family’s application to stay in Canada. Hinzman and his wife have two children, one of which was born in Toronto. In Hinzman’s case, the Canadian government rejected his claim that he was a conscientious objector, thus making him ineligible for refugee status. Hinzman had made two applications to the U.S. military for conscientious objector status prior to fleeing to Canada. The first application was lost and the second was denied.
After World War II, the Nuremberg Tribunal declared a number of principles of international law. Those principles established that soldiers have a moral duty, not a choice, to refuse to carry out illegal orders. Imperialist countries are quick to point to the “wartime ethics” established during the Nuremberg trials and in the Geneva Conventions to demonize their targets, even as they brazenly trample those very same doctrines.
It is outrageous that Canada should punish U.S. war objectors for exercising their moral duty by refusing to fight. Once back in the United States, war resistors face court martial before a military tribunal and long prison sentences. The death penalty is still on the books of the U.S. military for desertion in time of war.
The Canadian government’s deportation policy unashamedly ignores the will of the Canadian people. A recent poll shows that 72 percent of Canadians favored sanctuary for U.S. war resisters. On June 3, the Canadian parliament voted in favor of U.S. war resisters seeking refuge from the unjust and illegal occupation of Iraq. While the motion was nonbinding, the conservative minority government indicated it is prepared to defy the resolution by proceeding with the deportations.
Creative resistance will be required on both sides of the border. Popular mobilization is needed to ensure that the will of the majority will prevail and that we can bring an end the war crimes in Iraq and the immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces.
