[Peace-discuss] Fw: I'll Have a Draught Dodger!

[unionyes]

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Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 9:10 PM
Subject: I'll Have a Draught Dodger!


> I'll Have a Draught Dodger!
>
> Canadian Parliament Votes Again to Let U.S. War Resisters Stay
>
> Submitted to Portside
> by Mike Ferner
>
> April 1, 2009
>
> Two days ago, for the second time in 10 months,
> Canada's House of Commons told Prime Minister Stephen
> Harper and his Conservative government, including
> Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, to stop deporting
> U.S. soldiers resisting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
>
> The vote united the three opposition parties, the
> Liberals, the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic
> Party in a close 129-125 vote.
>
> Last week, the War Resisters Support Campaign rallied
> for former Army soldier, Kimberly Rivera, the first
> female U.S. soldier to go to Canada.  Nearly 100 people
> filled the chairs and lined the aisles at the
> Steelworkers hall in Toronto for Rivera, her husband
> and three children, the youngest born in Canada six
> months ago.
>
> The morning after the March 25 rally, Rivera was due to
> be deported back to the U.S. to face an Army court
> martial, but Federal Judge James Russell agreed with
> Rivera's argument that resisters who speak out against
> the war publicly in Canada receive harsher sentences,
> and granted her a temporary stay.
>
> 'This was the fifth time that the court ruled that Iraq
> war resisters face harsher punishment if they're sent
> back to the U.S.,' said Michelle Robidoux, spokesperson
> for the Toronto-based support campaign. 'The courts
> have spoken, Parliament has spoken and Canadians have
> made their views clear. These conscientious objectors
> should not be sent back to the United States to face
> jail time for opposing the Iraq War.'
>
> Several other resisters were at the Steelworkers hall
> to support Rivera and her family, including Jeremy
> Hinzman, the first U.S. serviceperson to go to Canada
> during this war, Phil McDowell and his wife Jamine,
> Chuck Wylie, Dale Landry, Ryan Johnson and three others
> who did not want their names mentioned.
>
> At that rally, MP Olivia Chow, NDP Immigration Critic,
> announced that the following day she would introduce a
> resolution in the House of Commons restating
> Parliament's position from last June.  That measure as
> well as the most recent one, are non-binding
> resolutions the Harper government does not have to
> legally obey.  However, to give an idea how much public
> support is behind letting war resisters stay in Canada,
> campaign organizers feared Chow's surprise announcement
> might lose the votes of some Liberal MPs who did not
> appreciate the NDP grabbing the limelight on the issue.
>
> In a poll conducted last year gained by Angus Reid
> Strategies, 64% of all Canadians said resisters should
> be allowed to stay.  The poll results were reported in
> the same issue of the Truro Daily News that carried a
> story on Dick Cotterill, who enlisted in the Marine
> Corps, decided he was opposed to the Viet Nam war and
> went to Nova Scotia in 1972.
>
> Cotterill now owns his own business and has a son in
> the Canadian Air Force.  When asked how he felt about
> the current generation of young war resisters, he said,
> 'Every soldier has the responsibility to refuse to obey
> orders that are illegal, unjust and immoral.'
>
> That sentiment was echoed several times at the rally
> for Rivera last week.  Two local clergy members spoke
> in support, saying resisters have a right to refuse to
> serve in an illegal war.  One even said he welcomed
> these young men and women and called them, 'the kind of
> people Canada needs.'
>
> The morning after the rally, when Rivera would have
> been deported, save for Judge Russell's reprieve,
> Robidoux let a late-morning breakfast go cold as she
> furiously called fellow campaigners and texted Members
> of Parliament on the floor of the House debating Chow's
> motion.  Not long after the resolution's introduction,
> Conservatives moved to end discussion which would
> effectively kill the measure.
>
> Reading one incoming text message, she exclaimed, 'Ha!
> This is the new Tory line: 'We don't need this
> legislation, Obama will save them (resisters).''
>
> Commenting on the non-binding nature of the resolution,
> Robidoux said, 'I think we're going to win or lose the
> fight in the next six months.  Unless there is a change
> in the government we'll not win the political solution.
> We need a change in the regulations.  The Conservative
> government can be pushed on a case-by-case basis, (to
> let resisters stay) but that's a real long shot.'
>
> Asked why this issue is so important to Canadians that
> they would make a significant effort to organize
> support, Robidoux replied, 'The history we had during
> the Vietnam War is the foundation of today's War
> Resisters Support Campaign.  People my age had contact
> with draft resisters.  I remember when I was eight
> years old and there were a few of them living in the
> house next door.  I thought they were cool.'
>
> She described how sheltering resisters during that war
> became part of the Canadian culture.
>
> 'The announcer of the most popular radio program on CBC
> came here during that war.  There's a well-known beer
> in British Columbia called 'Draught Dodger.'  The
> president of the Steelworkers local here was a
> resister.  Artists, activists, the co-founder of
> Greenpeace'nobody wants to lose that history and those
> contributions.  It's more than just being against war.
> It's the right to conscience.  What's happened now is
> that the Tories are sick of that history; they don't
> want to hear any more about it.'
>
> A second reason, Robidoux said, is the Iraq War itself.
>
> 'It's simple.  It's wrong.  You don't need a political
> science degree to understand that.  Opposition to it
> has increased every year.'  Illustrating her point, she
> noted that on February 15, 2003, as part of protests
> around the globe to oppose the invasion of Iraq,
> Canadians turned out in massive numbers.  'There were
> 80,000 people in the streets of Toronto, 250,000 in
> Montreal, many thousands in Quebec'even 7,000 in the
> little city of Victoria (BC).'
>
> She finally paused and took a deep breath.  'Since May
> of '08 there's been no down time.  I'm not
> exaggerating'it's just running flat out.'  After that
> momentary pause, Robidoux returned to how the current
> sanctuary movement for resisters came about.
>
> 'It's important Americans learn of our relationship
> with the U.S. peace movement.  If it wasn't for MFSO
> (Military Families Speak Out), we probably wouldn't
> have gotten off the ground.  We met Nancy (Lessin) and
> Charlie (Richardson) (cofounders of MFSO), at an early
> demonstration in Washington.  I noticed this couple
> wearing Steelworkers' jackets and went up to talk with
> them.  We had them come to Toronto in February '04 to
> speak and I had seen an article on Jeremy Hinzman, the
> first U.S. soldier to come to Canada.  Nancy and
> Charlie knew he was staying with some Quakers, so we
> were able to find him.  Then Brandon Hughes came two or
> three months later via the Quakers, and we decided in
> May '04 to launch the War Resisters Support Campaign.'
>
> The wiry 47 year-old refuted the argument that U.S.
> soldiers are no longer drafted and therefore don't
> qualify for sanctuary in Canada.
>
> 'There's the whole 'compulsion' argument.  You've got
> 'Stop-Loss' which the military uses to keep soldiers on
> active duty, the 'Individual Ready Reserve' that
> reactivates them any time during an eight year period
> even if they've served their four year contract, also
> the early National Guard call-ups and that's not even
> talking about the economy.'
>
> Robidoux said the campaign will now concentrate on
> getting a 'Private Member's' bill introduced that, if
> it passes, will have the force of law to stop
> deportation of resisters.  'Of course these Tories
> could still decide to ignore it, which they have with
> other legislation that has been passed,' she said
> ruefully.
>
> Recognizing the substantial number of calls to Canadian
> officials U.S. peace activists have made to support the
> resolutions and urge compliance, Robidoux said the most
> important thing people south of the border can do is
> 'build links with resisters who are here, maybe
> 'adopting' a resister, and helping to build awareness
> of their situation among Americans and American media.
> It will be up to us in Canada to win it here among our
> politicians.'
>
> ###
>
> Ferner (www.mikeferner.org) is the author of 'Inside
> the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq,'
> and is president of VFP.
>
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