Cindy Sheehan Visits Canada

An American mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq who is now a vocal antiwar activist urged the Canadian government on Thursday to accept American military deserters from the Iraq war.

Cindy Sheehan implored Canadians to help:

"I'm just here begging the people of Canada to force your government, because your government works for you … because your government does not work for war profiteers, to allow our soldiers to have sanctuary up here," she said.
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Sheehan asked the federal government at a news conference in Ottawa Thursday to create a provision allowing military deserters to flee to Canada so they don't need to apply for refugee status on an individual basis.

The question of whether or not our government works for war profiteers is certainly an open one. Canada is not immune from participating in the worldwide military-industrial complex and, although our country's role in the war machine may not be as massive as that of the United States, there is no doubt that we are still their partners in these global war campaigns.

The issues surrounding Iraq war deserters have been on the table most recently due to the refusal of our country to grant refugee status to two American soldiers. The Iraq war is illegal according to international law and any soldier forced to participate in it, regardless of their volunteer status, ought to be allowed sanctuary in this country.

There are 20 active refugee claims by American military deserters.

About 150 deserters are known to be living in Canada, according to the War Resisters Support Campaign, though the organization believes the number could be as high as 1,500.

It's estimated 40,000 to 60,000 U.S. draft dodgers fled to Canada during the Vietnam War.

Some of those Vietnam war dissenters are still being rounded up and charged with desertion once the United States gets their hands on them, despite the fact that they have fully integrated themselves in our society as contributing citizens. In fact, the US military recently apprehended a pensioner living in the US who had gone AWOL during the Vietnam war and threw him in jail. While most other "crimes" besides murder have statutes of limitations, simply objecting to participating in a war apparently follows one around for life.

Canada must do right by those who conscientiously object - especially those who believe that the Iraq war violates international law. Those soldiers have no other recourse but to either remain in their home country under fraudulent circumstances, be imprisoned or flee to a country for safe refuge. If they choose the latter, Canada must be one of those countries.