Canada wants US war resisters to stay | Paul Copeland | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Canada wants US war resisters to stay | Paul Copeland | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk






The case for Bill C-440, a seven-minute video on the campaign to let US Iraq war resisters stay in Canada. Video: WarResistersCanada Based on US President Barack Obama's 31 August pronouncement and the uncritical TV news coverage of it, it might be reasonable to believe that the Iraq war is over. The frustrating truth, however, is that for the Iraqi people, for American soldiers who continue to be deployed to Iraq, and for those US soldiers who refused to take part in the war and sought refuge in Canada, the facts are very different.

Tom Kent, the Associated Press's deputy managing editor for standards and production, explained it best in a memo to the journalists working for his internationally respected news organisation earlier this month:

"To begin with, combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials. The situation on the ground in Iraq is no different today than it has been for some months.

"As for US involvement, it also goes too far to say that the US part in the conflict in Iraq is over. President Obama said Monday night that 'the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.'

"However, 50,000 American troops remain in country. Our own reporting on the ground confirms that some of these troops, especially some 4,500 special operations forces, continue to be directly engaged in military operations. These troops are accompanying Iraqi soldiers into battle with militant groups and may well fire and be fired on.

"In addition, although administration spokesmen say we are now at the tail end of American involvement and all troops will be gone by the end of 2011, there is no guarantee that this will be the case."

For many, particularly the families mourning the more than 100,000 documented Iraqi civilian deaths caused by this unnecessary war, it is not possible simply to declare the lies, violence and misery resolved.

There is also the persistent matter of how and why this ongoing war was started. The Bush and Blair duo's purposeful communication of false evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) continues to be important because the Nüremberg military tribunals, which followed the horrors of the second world war, determined that:

"To initiate a war of aggression… is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

US Iraq war veteran Rodney Watson marked the first full year of sanctuary in Vancouver's First United Church on 18 September because he refuses to be jailed while those responsible for sending him into an illegal war remain free to write books and profit from their crimes. Rodney and an estimated 200 other US Iraq war resisters came to Canada seeking refuge in a country that came to the same conclusion about the Iraq war as they did. They have, instead, found themselves threatened by our government with deportation and harsh punishment by the US military.

This past July, the federal court of appeal ruled that the request by Jeremy Hinzman – the first Iraq war resister to come to Canada – for permanent resident status based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds must be sent back for reconsideration by a different immigration officer. The court unanimously found (PDF) that the first review of his case was "significantly flawed" and "unreasonable", sending the message that officials can no longer ignore the sincerely held moral, political and religious beliefs that motivated these conscientious soldiers to become war resisters.

Canada has a proud tradition of accepting war resisters, which extends all the way back to the United Empire Loyalists. During the 1960s and early 1970s, we welcomed more than 50,000 Vietnam war resisters who were the "largest, best-educated group this country had ever received." Despite denials by the current Conservative minority administration, the government of Canada's own historians have correctly recounted that this group included both draft-dodgers and deserters.

In 2008, after the first vote by parliament directing our government to stop deporting Iraq war resisters and fairly consider their requests for permanent resident status, nearly two thirds of Canadians surveyed by Angus Reid (PDF) agreed with parliament's decision. Since then, resisters Robin Long and Cliff Cornell were forced back to the US. With interviews about their political and moral opposition to the war that aired on CBC and CNN used as evidence against them, they were court-martialled for desertion and imprisoned for longer terms than some soldiers who have been convicted of rape.

Back in 2003, Stephen Harper, as leader of the opposition, went on Fox News to endorse Bush's criminal war plans and assert that, were he prime minister, he would send Canadians to Iraq. At the same time, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets across Canada condemning the war before it even started. Canadians convinced the government of the day to make the right judgment. Fast-forward to our last federal election two years ago, and even Harper admitted the Iraq war was "absolutely an error".

On Wednesday, Bill C-440 – an act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (war resisters) – will be voted on at second reading. If passed, it will give the force of law to parliament's clear direction and effect to the will of the majority of Canadians that accepting Iraq war resisters is the right thing to do.

This bill shouldn't be necessary, as parliament and a majority of Canadians have said they want Iraq War resisters to stay. But the legislation is necessary, because these resisters still face harsh punishment if returned to the US for refusing to be part of a war that never should have happened.