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War Resister Ordered Out
Immigration officials inform American soldier that she must leave by Jan. 27 or face deportation
When Kimberley Rivera shipped out to serve in Iraq with the U.S. Army in the fall of 2006, she saw herself rebuilding homes, feeding the hungry and helping children.
Kimberley Rivera, a U.S. soldier seeking refugee status in Canada, appears at a news conference with husband, Mario, and children, including Christian, 6 and baby Katie on Jan. 7, 2009. (Colin McConnell/Toronto Star) Barely three months into her 15-month mission, Rivera, a gate guard in Baghdad, had had enough.
A young mother herself, she says she was haunted by the sight of children crying, forever traumatized by the war.
While on leave for two weeks, Rivera says, she decided she couldn't go back to war.
In January 2007, she packed up her family from Fort Carson, Colo., and drove to Canada, hoping to obtain refugee status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Rivera, the first female U.S. Iraq war resister to seek refuge in Canada, was told by the Immigration and Refugee Board yesterday morning that she and her family must leave the country by Jan. 27 or face deportation.
The decision will force Rivera, 26, to uproot her family – her husband, Mario, and their three children, including 6-week-old daughter Katie – from their Parkdale home in Toronto. In the United States, she faces the prospect of jail for deserting the army.
"It's really overwhelming," she said at a news conference yesterday afternoon, cradling a sleeping Katie in her arms.
"It'll be heart-breaking," added her husband, noting that their two older children go to school in Toronto.
The couple both worked full-time – she in a bakery, he in various labour jobs – until Katie was born. Rivera is taking time off work to care for the baby.
The family plans to consult a lawyer in case they can appeal the decision, she said.
Rivera stressed she doesn't regret her decision to leave the army, even if it leads to deportation and a criminal record in the United States.
"I came here in my belief, I'll leave here in it as well."
Another four U.S. Iraq war resisters and their families are facing deportation this month alone, said Michelle Robidoux of the War Resisters Support Campaign.
Approximately 200 American war resisters are believed to be living in Canada.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney yesterday blamed U.S. "deserters" for the backlog in refugee applications, and denied the legitimacy of their claims.
"We're not talking about draft dodgers, we're not talking about resisters," he told Global Television. "We're talking about people who volunteer to serve in the armed forces of a democratic country and simply change their mind to desert and that's fine, that's the decision they have made, but they are not refugees."
Robidoux says the government is ignoring a motion passed by all three opposition parties in the House of Commons last June, 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.
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31 Comments so far
Show AllAs Canada will have it very own "Dubya" for a little while yet, it behooves our own mini-warmonger/Neo-Con to pander to the current "Dubya" and all he stands for, a while longer. Hence the deportation order- our Stevie is always ready to trash traditional Canadian (really American core values, we are very similar) values to SUCK UP. There is no justice when Fascists, whatever they call themselves, do their thing...
As a Canadian I have always been proud of my country's record of accepting US war resisters and draft dodgers. People should be allowed to avoid murdering other people as a basic human right. There is nothing heroic or necessary about the Iraq invasion and no shame in choosing not to take part, in fact it takes more courage NOT to fight. On the other hand I don't want the poor deluded kids who sign up to go murder to feel that 'there's always Canada' if they change their minds.
"When you're the fighter you're the politician's tool.
When you're the fighter you're everybody's fool." Bruce Cockburn.
Reported by Loriggio:
people who volunteer to serve in the armed forces of a democratic country and simply change their mind to desert ...are not refugees."
Canadian Maplefudge wrote:
I don't want the poor deluded kids who sign up to go murder to feel that 'there's always Canada' if they change their minds.
COMMENT:
I absolutely agree with both of the above. The business of the military is to kill people and break things and any contribution to that effort, even if only a gate guard is a choice to become a killer and vandal either directly or as an accomplice.
I can't fault Canada, even if under the rule of their own "mini-warmonger/Neo-Con" [as Canadian lbcanuck wrote] for keeping out accomplices to murder for profit. The woman chose a murderer's life as a job. I don't see how that is any more laudable or excusable than working for the mob as a contract killer. The result is the same: make a living killing innocent people.
"On the other hand I don't want the poor deluded kids who sign up to go murder to feel that 'there's always Canada' if they change their minds. "
Why not? The 'poor deluded kids' more often than not are being sold a bag of goods to get them to enlist.
It seems that this topic brings forth a lot of people who have never made any serious mistake that they subsequently tried to rectify. Oh holy (self-)righteousness.
NorthWind wrote:
It seems that this topic brings forth a lot of people who have never made any serious mistake that they subsequently tried to rectify.
COMMENT:
I've made some mishtakes in my life which I tried to rectify, but killing innocent guys for money, shattering the faces of young women for money, splattering children's brains all over their dad's chests for money - never did that, but if I had, I'd know that those behaviors are not mistakes, they are choices which can never be rectified.
My heart goes out to the Rivera family and others like them. Kenney is trying to use semantics saying these soldiers are volunteers and then just happen to change their minds. It's not like that, and he d*mn well knows it! Yes, he is sucking up to Fascist Dubya. Like Dubya and Cheney and the others, Kenney is a malignant tumor on the world. May the world one day rid ourselves of the cancer known as Fascism.
Truthseeker58 wrote:
"My heart goes out to the Rivera family"
"the cancer known as Fascism"
COMMENT:
Fascism, empire - any form of totalitarianism - can only exist if there are enough persons who are willing to pick up weapons and go kill innocent people for some leader as Rivera was willing when she joined and took her blood oath to empire.
My heart goes out to Rivera no more than to the leader she followed. Which is to say, not one damn bit.
A profound truth about the universal soldier:
"...without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and WITHOUT HIM ALL THIS KILLING CAN'T GO ON
He's THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER AND HE REALLY IS TO BLAME
–From the Universal Soldier by Buffy Ste. Marie
Yes, Rivera really is to blame.
Let your heart go out to those the universal soldier has murdered and maimed in Iraq, not to those that make the fascism you decry possible.
As long as we're quoting lyrics . . .
Soldier Boy, made of clay
Now an empty shell
Twenty one, only son
But he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
Do just as we say
Finished here, greetings Death
He's yours to take away
- Metallica, "Disposable Heroes"
Seventhson wrote:
Bred to kill
COMMENT:
"Bred to kill" says it all: it is what society does with pit bulls and young men, and now young women.
Indeed. What is basic training if NOT indoctrination and brainwashing?
Of course.
The Army officer, a Ranger, stands high on a platform in front of several companies of soldiers at Fort Ord and into his microphone he bellows:
"What is the spirit of the bayonet?"
A thousand or more voices scream back:
TO KILL!!!
He repeats the question over and over, and each time the men scream louder, more wildly agitated, in answer. The men have become a mob, a frenzied mob lusting to kill something.
On a bright, pleasant, sunny day in coastal California, young men just out of high school feel the rush of power, the blood lust rise. And that afternoon become willing killers to be used by the ruling class in their greed and lust for power .
But brainwashed? They already came brainwashed from early childhood. Those that succumb to this fever of the bayonet are the same sort that scream for the team at a ball game: urge their team to "bury, stomp, kill, mutilate" the other team. The other team, the other school, the other country, the other race, the other religion, the "other." For the king, the president, for god and country, and profit.
They would not have been so easily manipulated into accepting the blood fever, but for parents, teachers, peers, all seduced and manipulated to accept the lies of the establishment - lies so transparent that only eyes clouded by self-interest and deluded by the belief that some people are better than, more worthy than, "the others," could choose to not see the truth, could choose to accept the lie, and could choose to teach the lie to others, insist the lie be accepted by all. Those who don't accept the lie are un-American, are traitors.
But, not all: some who for various reasons failed to be indoctrinated to blindly accept authority of parents, school, government, anyone. Those few - rare? - ones not pressured by authority or peers to side-step rational thought, look upon those that scream for team, scream for blood, as irrational, as diseased.
Diseased? What? is this "Advocate" some America-hating commie/pinko traitor? That's not for me to say, but I'm hardly alone in thinking the US is a sick society: look back in CD at Our Nation's Soul Sickness - Part II by Roberto Rodriguez, the very day of this article.
The United States is not a society sickened BY a disease, the society itself IS the disease, a disease that has killed, maimed, and smothered millions around the globe with an oppression that is as deadly to the world's people as any plague.
Those who choose to kill for a living get no sympathy from me when, after they give it a try, they decide it's a dirty job.
Cleaning septic tanks is a dirty job too, but at least it is an honorable one.
Your comments about the sports teams reminds me of that George Orwell quote: "Sport is war by other means."
And conversely, war is sport by other means.
Football maybe: Our side, their side, winners, losers, glory, field of battle, push back, beat back, crush 'em, kill 'em.... The grunts get muddy, bloody, bruised, sometimes broken, even death happens but is quickly forgotten and the game goes on, coaches curse the other team while they coach from the safety of the sidelines, bands play, flags wave, the citizen-crowd pays for the game and wave their little flags and cheer their side while the owners/owning-class count the profits the grunts have made for them from the crowd.
The citizen-crowd, still believing the lies of the owners/owning class, hasn't changed from the time a fellow (not Barnum) mused "There's a sucker born every minute."
A stadium full. A nation full.
War is a sucker's game.
Orwell was one of those who wasn't fooled by mirrors, who could see behind the curtain, and tried to tell us. Few have paid attention.
Paul Siemering
Yo advocate- let's try running that through one more time. Ms. Rivera wants to STOP soldiering! How can you think she is to blame? She said to herself "without me all this killing can't go on. I quit!" That was a good thing. that's exactly what Buffy was thinking of:the universal soldiers realize what they are doing, accept responsibility and stop. Let this mommy live in peace wherever she can find some, and take care of her little ones.
Paul Siemering wrote:
How can you think she is to blame?
She said to herself "without me all this killing can't go on. I quit!"
COMMENT:
Rivera is to blame because before she quit she chose to participate in killing as a job.
A job. Only a job, like lopping the heads off chicken heads in a chicken factory. Decide you don't like that kind of bloody job, then quit.
Only the heads taken off in Iraq are not chickens, they belong to little kids, old men, pregnant women, guys that went to school, to work, to dinner with mom and dad, to home to wife and kids - if the wife and kids, or the guy, survived the Americans that came there to kill for a paycheck.
There have been at least a couple of movies where the protagonist is a contract killer for "the mob" who, after many jobs, decides to quit. Viewers are left with siding with the reformed killer, and most do.
And so it goes: always Americans side with their killers. They say, be it Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Iraq - anywhere, that the "boys" were lied to, didn't know what they were doing was wrong, couldn't get a decent job elsewhere. Always the excuses, and the murdering for money goes on. The victims in the past half century to American "boys" in uniform tally up in the millions.
And always the excuses. As long as their are men and women willing to kill for their leaders and citizens willing to make excuses for the killers, the killing will not end.
How many million more will be killed, how many million more will be maimed before US citizens stop making excuses for those that kill for money in their name?
Outside of whether Canadian laws define someone who acts as Ms Rivera did as a refugee the responses from people who say that she should have expected that there was a chance she would be sent to a war zone baffle me [ergo she cannot use that as an excuse to desert the military].
It is codified that members of the military have an obligation to refuse to carry out orders that are illegal. Most people, even those who don't support the deserters, generally admit the war was and remains illegal; therefore all who participate share culpability [not equally but to a degree]. Is not Ms Rivera merely doing what we expect of a soldier who finds themselves ordered to participate in an illegal war?
Ms Rivera thought she was volunteering to build homes and help people. Obviously she was naive and had most likely been conned by a recruiter. Many others are victims of the economic draft and likewise thought that they were volunteering to help rather than participate in war crimes.
It IS a soldier's duty to refuse illegal orders and to refuse to participate in war crimes. While she may have shown poor judgement in enlisting, she is now doing the right and moral thing by refusing to support further crimes. Her efforts should be supported, not condemned.
Give me a break, what did she think she was going to do in the army, have a tea party? The army does not have you shoot at human targets for no reason, I had no dilusions when I was at basic training, THE ARMY TEACHES YOU TO KILL OTHER PEOPLE! If you can not handle that, do not join! Join the peace corps instead.
"If you can not handle that, do not join! Join the peace corps" In saying that, you deny the right to change one's mind, to learn from experience, to discover deceit and trickery.
Maybe it is typical for a person with a frozen mind to advocate blind obedience, even at the expense of ethics and compassion.
Deceit and Trickery? You got to be kidding! Can any one tell me that they do not know the ARMY teaches you to kill! Every person in the world hears Army, knows what they do except maybe the salvation army. It comes to this, if you do not want to go to war, do not JOIN the army, it is that simple. If you join the army and are sent to war, hay guess what, it was your choice now you have to live with that choice.
I quite agree.
Canada should be honoured to be the choice for people who have the moral strength and integrity to oppose evil when they see it.
We should welcome with open arms anybody who refuses, however belated, to participate in the atrocity of war.
Canada is a sovereign country and it can do whatever the hell it wants, but it's still sad nevertheless.
interesting that the deportation date is Jan 27. On Jan 26th, for those in the US who might not have heard, Canada's current prime minister (Conservative Stephen Harper) will present a budget that is expected to be rejected by the 3 opposition parties (Liberal, New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois), and then either a new election will be called or a coalition government of the opposition parties will come into power. If this happens, war resisters may suddenly have a much better chance to stay in Canada...
I'm in two minds on this issue. On the one hand Canada should accept refugees, but she's not a refugee, she's a deserter. But I do support the right of people to change their minds when they realise they've made a mistake.
I don't think any of the 'war resisters' have done themselves any favours by running to Canada (or Mexico, or the backwoods), I'd respect them far more had they said to their superiours 'no, sir. I will no longer follow any orders to participate in a war I believe is wrong.' They should emulate M. Ali (the boxer) who went to jail rather than be drafted, fleeing to another country is not an act of courage. (side note, if you're going to be killed if you stay in the country than it is an act of courage to flee. But noone's going to kill these soldiers if they refuse orders to deploy to the Iraq.)
Here's another point of view:
http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/michele_mandel/2009/01/08/7953646-sun.html
Paul Siemering
yeah. another point of view all right. the point of view of a mean, heartless war monger.
Grandpa, did you even read the article? The author was merely stating that someone picked a bad case to make people feel bad.
She states twice in her article that deserters should be allowed to stay in Canada.
Here's the key for me: "A young mother herself, she says she was haunted by the sight of children crying, forever traumatized by the war." In other words, Rivers realized she was headed for a lifetime of PTSD and disability if she forced herself to stick it out. Sounds to me like the decision was about recognizing her personal limits and putting a value on her own health, rather than a "conscientious objector" to war in general type of decision. By so choosing, she has preserved her capability to function in her family, to stay a productive member of society, and to save the VA thousands of $$ for her treatment afterwards. To reward her excellent judgment, Canada will evict her children from their school and we're going to put her in jail and make an example of her. I think she got it right: jail is probably going to be less traumatizing than continuing in Iraq would have been. Would that more soldiers had that kind of good sense.
It sounds as though she is beginning to articulate her empathy for the children she saw, relating them and her feelings for them to her own children. This sounds like conscience. And to think that we had concerns about the Nation state with standing armies.
http://www.consciencecanada.ca/home/
here are some lyricsa to go with the rest from an 1984 record by Flipper
Cant you hear the war cry?
Its time to enlist
The people speak as one
The cattle, the crowd
Those too afraid to live
Demand a sacrifice
A sacrifice
Cant you smell their stinking breath
Listen to them
Wheezing and gasping and
Chanting their slogans
The grave diggers song
Demand a sacrifice
A sacrifice
Cant you smeel the fresh blood
Steaming into the soil
As our patriots
Fathers and mothers and lovers
Admire the military style
Praising gawd and state
Crying tears of pride
For the sons and lovers
For all the fools slaughteres
For the maimed, the dying
And the dead
So the nation will live
So the people will remain as cattle
Demand a sacrifice
A sacrifice
Canada bows to American fascism, worshipping at the altar of Mammon.
I have watched so many documentaries that speak about Canada's not wanting to be like the US. I think that this is a good attitude to have, but based on this article they obviously don't have the courage to stand up. Canada=US
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com