Awol Libs defeat war resisters bill

For want of just eight more votes, Bill C-440 - the war resisters bill to give protection to US Iraq war deserters - went down to defeat on Wednesday 136 to 143. The following eighteen Libs expedited that defeat by going awol on the vote :
Michael Ignatieff, Jean-Claude D'Amours, Ruby Dhalla, Kirsty Duncan, Marc Garneau, Albina Guarnieri, Dominic LeBlanc, Keith Martin, John McCallum, Brian Murphy, Anthony Rota, Judy Sgro, Michelle Simson, Frank Valeriote, Joe Volpe, Bryon Wilfert, and Lise Zarac,
with Lib Alan Tonks voting with the Cons against it.

Special mention goes out to Lib Frank Valeriote who was there at 6:25pm for the Criminal Acts Records vote five minutes before the vote on the war resisters bill, and who was on his feet again at 6:42 making a speech in favour of "revitalizing parliamentary proceedings through reforming question period" five minutes after it. Yet somehow Frank went awol in the middle here for conscientious objectors who don't want to fight the US war on terra.

Good job, Frank. You really want to "revitalize parliamentary proceedings"? Try showing the fuck up for what were once called liberal values. It was a Liberal bill.

Also present on Wednesday for the Criminal Acts vote but MIA five minutes later for the war resisters bill were Libs Kirsty Duncan, Brian Murphy, Judy Sgro, Joe Volpe, and Lise Zarac.

L-Girl at We Move to Canada has worked fiercely on behalf of US war resisters. She cites a letter written on Sept. 19 from a former head of the Immigration and Refugee Board to Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. In it Peter Shormer criticizes the following July 22 CIC directive concerning war resisters who claim refugee status in Canada :

"Military deserters from other countries have sought refugee protection in Canada. Desertion from the Canadian military is a serious criminal offence.
Therefore these deserters may also be serious criminals and therefore inadmissible to Canada."

What utterly bizarre logic. As per Shormer's letter to Kenney, the CIC directive goes on to specifically target US war resisters for exclusion from Canada by meddling in what should be independent case reviews by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Luckily for Kenney and the Cons and the US war on terra, this time the Leader of the Opposition and 17 more Liberals had their back.
.

One war resister down - 200+ more to go

"The first American war resister deported from Canada – where he had fled after refusing to be deployed to Iraq – was sentenced to 15 months in jail yesterday at a court martial hearing in Colorado.
Pte. Robin Long, 25, of Boise, Idaho, was also given a dishonourable discharge after pleading guilty to charges of desertion."

On June 3, 2008, a majority of Lib, NDP, and Bloc MPs - 137 Yeas to 110 Nays - adopted an NDP recommendation to allow U.S. Iraq War resisters to obtain Permanent Resident status in Canada; the Cons voted against it.

In July Pte. Long became the first war resister since the Vietnam War to be forcefully deported from Canadian soil and handed over to US military authorities. One down; over 200 more to go...

Long joined the army after being promised a non-combat position within the U.S. by his recruiter and went A.W.O.L. in 2005 prior to his scheduled deployment to Iraq.
Long said he had come to feel significant moral opposition to the war and the lies he had been told regarding the reason for invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Long : "Regardless of what hardships I go through, I could have put Iraqi families through more hardships. I have no regrets."

Well, so much for Canada's respect for that Nuremberg principle about soldiers taking responsibility for their actions ...

War resisters poll at CTV

CTV has a poll up :
Should U.S. war resisters qualify for permanent resident status in Canada?

Currently it's running :
69% YES ... 31% NO

GO!

Support Iraq war resisters in Canada

UPDATE : PASSED -137 Yeas to 110 Nays

Motion to "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members...to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and...the government should immediately cease any removal ordeportation actions...against such individuals."

Sgt. Corey Glass has had his application to stay in Canada rejected and now faces deportation, making him the first Iraq war resister to be deported from Canada. He could be deported as soon as June 12.

Today at 3 p.m., parliament will vote on a motion to support U.S. Iraq war resisters in Canada.

The NDP motion calls on the Government of Canada to stop deportation of those who refuse to fight in Bush's illegal war. All three opposition parties have indicated their support, but then again there has been that business of sitting on hands when it's time to vote.

Anyone who didn't heed Laura's call to arms yesterday can still phone or send along a little note to their MP telling them you expect them to show up and support the motion. Use your inside voice.

Tell them you want the Government of Canada to
• rescind the deportation order against Corey Glass
• stop supporting Bush's illegal war in Iraq
• vote to allow war resisters to remain in Canada

Click here to find your M.P.'s contact info.

As Laura says :"
It is very painless! You can say something like "I live in ____ and I'd like to leave a message for _____." (Sometimes the first person who answers has to transfer you to someone else.)
Then say "I'm calling to urge ______ to _____."
The person on the other end is always friendly and will say nothing more than "thank you for calling, I'll pass on your concerns".
You don't even have to leave your name if you don't want to."

And don't forget to cc Steve :

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
phone 613.992.4211 or email pm@pm.gc.ca

On cowardice

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, US army desertions are up 80%.

More US veterans have committed suicide than have died in Iraq.

In 2005, 6,256 vets committed suicide at an average of 17 per day.
In the 20-24 age group, they averaged 22.9 suicides a day, four times the national US average.
One in four homeless people in the US are veterans even though they represent just 11% of the adult population. One in four!
Times Online Nov 15, 2007

I'm writing this for all you fuckwits out there chiming in to comments at CBC that Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey are cowards, that they shouldn't have signed up if they didn't want to fight, that people can't change their minds, that if they were willing to go to Afghanistan they should be willing to go to Iraq, that as war deserters they deserves to be sent back to face courts martial and jail in the US.

Hinzman enlisted in 2001 at age 22. A year later he and his wife had become Quakers. After his application for conscientious objector status was denied, he served his tour of duty as an armourer in Afghanistan. It was not till his unit was to be redeployed to Iraq that he deserted to Canada in 2004 with his wife and child.

Hinzman in 2004 : "The war on Iraq is immoral and illegal. If you are ever going to wreak havoc on a country, it would need to be justified. Every justification or rationale that we have ever offered for going to Iraq has been bogus. There were no weapons of mass destruction there. There have been no links established between Saddam and international terrorists, and then the notion that we're going to bring democracy to Iraq is -- we'll see if that comes to fruition, but I don't think we'll see it, unless it's convenient to America's agenda."

So he did his duty in Afghanistan but couldn't stomach Iraq.
How exactly does this differ from Canada's official position on Iraq?

Nonetheless the very reasons that caused Hinzman to desert are the same ones that he is not allowed to use in his application to the Immigration Board of Canada.
Hinzman on his Immigration hearing : "They raised the issue that they felt that the legality of the war in Iraq was irrelevant to our refugee claims. So, we were unable to argue that in any way."

But because he originally volunteered and did complete his tour in Afghanistan, he is not considered to be a conscientious objector so he isn't eligible for refugee status. Amnesty International disagrees.

Last week, after losing two immigration hearings and one from the Federal Court, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear their case. Their only hope now is a parliamentary intervention, one which would be certain to piss off the US. Does the Security and Prosperity Pact even allow Canada to accept war resistors now?

That protest sign behind Hinzman reads : "Canada should be a refuge from militarism - Pierre Trudeau".

Well? Are we? Or are we so thoroughly enmeshed in the illegal US war on terra that we are the cowards now?

War Resisters Support Campaign.
As usual there are some MPs email addresses there for you to write to.

We still have a border. Let's use it.

PAN-CANADIAN CALL-IN TO SUPPORT

US WAR RESISTERS IN CANADA

Make the call. Sign the petition.

Send a letter to the editor

Canada did not support the illegal invasion of Iraq. Why would Canada reject war resisters who ask for asylum here because they also share this opinion? Three US war resisters are currently being processed by the Canadian government for return across the border to US authorities. We still have a border. Let's use it.

Canadian Cynic has a piece up on the stall-out at the current Senate confirmation hearings of Michael Mukasey for U.S. Attorney-General. Seems the spineless incompetent Dems are unable to come up with a definition of torture that Mukasey can agree to renounce. It's just all too 'theoretical' for Mike. CC has a suggestion. I would just like to add that there is no such thing as 'simulated drowning' - unless you happen to be using simulated water.

Remind me again why Canada should send war resisters back to this rogue state?