flickering pictures

Canada, already home to many thousands of former U.S. soldiers who wanted no part of the Vietnam War, may continue its tradition of harbouring conscientious objectors by allowing Iraq War opponents to settle north of the border. The three opposition parties in Canada’s four-party minority government joined forces today to pass a non-binding motion urging Parliament to offer safe haven to U.S. military deserters.

So far, something in the area of 150-300 U.S. soldiers have opted for asylum in Canada rather than fighting in Iraq. The maximum penalty for U.S. soldiers found guilty of desertion is death.

From the CanWest News Service:

The motion called on the government to “immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members . . . to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada.”

The Conservatives also should “cease any removal or deportation actions,” the motion said.

Corey Glass, a 25-year-old deserter who came to Canada two years ago and has been ordered to leave or face deportation to the U.S. by June 12, welcomed the motion, although it will probably not make a difference in his battle to remain in the country.

On a marginally related note, here’s an excellent song by State Radio about a conscientious objector named Camilo Mejia who did jail time for his refusal to fight in Iraq. Mejia said he left his post because he could not in good conscience torture and abuse Iraqi prisoners, and felt he would be committing a war crime if he obeyed his orders. Even his all-star lawyer, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, couldn’t help him beat the charges at his court-martial, and Mejia was sentenced to a year in prison.

Mejia later wrote:

I was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say. People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors—the firefights, the ambushes, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child, or an old man on his knees, crying with his arms raised to the sky, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son.

[…] “I say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward, without knowing it, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been.”

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