Courage To Resist: Dear Canada: Let U.S. War Resisters Stay!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2008
12:32 PM
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CONTACT: Courage To Resist
courage@riseup.net
Max Diorio – 510.205.0551
Lori Hurlebaus – 510.484.7127
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Dear Canada: Let U.S. War Resisters Stay!
Delegations planned to Canadian Consulates in 8 U.S. cities on Friday January 25th
Supporters in SF, NY, LA, DC, Minneapolis, Seattle, Dallas, and Philadelphia join
a Pan-Canadian mobilization to urge Canadian Parliament to grant sanctuary to
U.S. military war resisters in Canada
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WASHINGTON, DC - January 25 - On Friday January 25th, religious leaders, military veterans, peace and justice activists and military families will convene on Canadian Consulates to petition them to grant sanctuary to U.S. war resisters in Canada. In San Francisco, delegates will present thousands of letters signed by U.S. people in support of sanctuary for U.S. war resisters in Canada as part of Courage To Resist's "Dear Canada: Let Them Stay" campaign.
Hundreds of U.S. military personnel are in Canada because of their decisions not to participate in U.S. wars and occupation in the Middle East. Currently there is no legal or political provision in effect in Canada which affords U.S. war resisters the right to stay in the country. Deportation looms as real threat for many women and men who are seeking refuge from persecution north of the U.S. border, even as widespread support for the rights of resisters to stay grows among the Canadian people.
Mike Wong, a Vietnam era veteran and war resister who spent 5 years in exile in Canada fleeing persecution from the U.S. military will be a delegate to the San Francisco Consulate on Friday. Mike asserts: "The war in Iraq is an open violation of both U.S. and international law, and is clearly illegal. Further, both U.S. and international law state that soldiers have the duty, not the option, to refuse illegal orders. I call upon the Canadian government to grant GI resisters the refugee status that they so clearly deserve."
Supporters in Canada and the U.S. are taking action now to urge the House of Commons (which reconvenes in February) to follow the recommendation of its Standing Immigration Committee which voted on December 6, 2007 to recommend that the Canadian government immediately implement a program to allow Iraq War resisters (and resisters of any war not sanctioned by the United Nations) and their families to stay in Canada. This type of political action is considered crucial, as the possibility of resisters being granted refugee status in Canada by the courts was effectively denied when the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of U.S. resisters Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey in their refugee cases.
Geoff Millard, D.C. chapter President of Iraq Veterans Against the War and outspoken advocate for the rights of war resisters to stay in Canada says: "Before I spent 13 months in Iraq I looked at Canada as an option, but it wasn't realistic to me. I violated my conscience in going to Iraq which may not have been the case if Canada had been accepting war resisters of conscience at that time."
Participating Groups Nationwide Include: Courage To Resist, War Resisters Support Campaign (Canada), Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, War Resisters League, Iraq Veterans Against the War-NYC, DECOI, Iraq Veterans Against the War-DC, Veterans for Peace Phillip Berrigan Memorial Chapter, Veterans for Peace Chapter 69, Cindy Sheehan, Raging Grannies, Project Safe Haven, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Iraq Veterans Against the War-Minnesota, Truth in Recruiting, Payday men's network, Global Women's Strike and North Texas for Justice and Peace.
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