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Should Canada Accept American Deserters?
It's not his war
U.S. deserters put their faith in Canada
By Jason Botchford, Toronto Sun
Hundreds of American soldiers are preparing to come to Canada if this country again opens its doors to war resisters.
Toronto lawyer Jeffry House, who is representing Jeremy Hinzman's landmark refugee case, said 200 have contacted him alone, mostly since George W. Bush was re-elected in November, looking for a way out.
Darrell Anderson knows why.
Seven months in combat
After serving in combat in Baghdad for seven months, the 22-year-old Kentucky-bred soldier turned his back on his home, his family -- including his 4-year-old daughter -- and his country to come to Toronto two weeks ago so he didn't have to go back to Iraq and train his gun on one more innocent child.
He is the most recent soldier to desert the American army and come to Canada
At home in Lexington, KY, over Christmas, Anderson read about Hinzman, a paratrooper turned Iraq-war-deserter, who is waiting for a Canadian tribunal to decide next month whether he is a refugee for refusing to fight.
"I saw his story and I saw hope for me," Anderson said. "I was not going back to Iraq to kill innocent people. I couldn't see myself making another decision. I didn't want to live a life where I was hiding in my own country."
House, himself a Vietnam draft dodger, said there are many others like Anderson waiting for the results of Hinzman's landmark case. Never before has there been a Canadian case dealing with American deserters.
"There are a lot people contacting me, wanting to know what would happen if they came to Canada," House said. "They are looking for ways out."
An estimated 5,500 men and women have deserted since the invasion of Iraq, reflecting Washington's growing problems with troop morale.
Anderson is the most recent soldier to come here. He is one of six known American military deserters who fled to Canada rather than go to war or face jail terms. All of them insist they were acting responsibly by refusing to fight what they all call an unjust war.
Anderson made his decision after going home at Christmas following seven months of combat in Iraq, where he won a bravery medal.
"It is just so intense in Iraq," Anderson said. "Many people will face the same question I had. I asked myself, 'Can I die over there? Can I go back and fight this unjust war?' "
The answer two weeks ago, just before Anderson slipped into a car and drove to Canada, was an emphatic ''no.'' But Anderson concedes that his decision was really made for him just about a year ago when he was still in Iraq.
In Baghdad, a car had approached too close to his platoon. He could hear other American soldiers screaming at him to open fire. When the motorist hit the brakes, sparks flew. The intensity piqued. People screamed: "What are you doing? Why aren't you firing?"
Anderson didn't move.
"I felt no threat, I felt the car posed no threat. I wasn't in any danger," Anderson said. "And then the windows rolled down and it was an innocent family. Two parents and some kids in the back. If I would have fired I would have killed innocent kids."
Anderson said he then turned to those fellow soldiers who were screaming at him.
"After that they said, 'Next time you open fire, you do what you're told,' " Anderson said. "They were ordering me to shoot, ordering me to kill innocent people."
Lee Zaslofsky, of Resisters, a Toronto-based group dedicated to helping deserters, is lobbying the government to make it easier for deserters like Anderson to come to Canada.
"We want the government to make it clear that they are going to be welcoming people and allowing them to stay," said Zaslofsky, one of an estimated 60,000 Americans who came here after to dodge the Vietnam War draft. "It's what Canadians want. It's what Canada has done in the past.
"The government should bite the bullet and step up to the plate and do what is right. These are human beings. Do we want to offer them up as sacrifices to the altar of good relations with George Bush?"
During the Vietnam War, Canada had one of the most open immigration policies in the world. People who showed up at the border were given "landed-immigrant" status on the spot. In 1969, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau instructed immigration officials not to discriminate against applicants because they hadn't fulfilled their military obligations in other countries.
But immigration in Canada now is much more restricted and the country is divided over whether the new era of deserters should be allowed to stay.
Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board has already ruled that Hinzman's claim that the war was illegal was not relevant to his case. The board is expected to determine in March whether Hinzman proved that he would face social persecution if sent home.
The United States Army treats deserters as common criminals, posting them on "wanted" lists with the FBI, state police forces and department of homeland security border patrols.
Unlike the Vietnam era, Canada has not encouraged deserters to seek asylum here and detractors are quick to note that this generation of American troops voluntarily signed up.
Still, there are a large number of people in Toronto willing and ready to help any soldiers who come here.
A group of deserters and old Vietnam War draft dodgers meet every week in Toronto. Sometimes they watch football games, other times they play cards, but all the time they talk about Iraq and the decisions they've made.
Cliff Cornell, 24, came to Toronto Jan. 8. The Arkansas resident was stationed in Georgia. His platoon was to be deployed to Iraq just after this past Christmas. He did not want to go.
He joined the army for a chance at an education but when he saw and heard what was happening in Iraq he made his decision.
He said being able to meet Anderson has helped him immeasurably.
"He wanted to know if it was really as bad as he's heard," Anderson said. "It is. Others ask me that. They want to know if they made the right decision. I tell them how you take your crappy Humvees out in the morning and ride them around Baghdad, hoping not to get blown up."
Anderson joined the army when he was in high school. He had just had a daughter, Tatum, and looked to the army as a way to better himself, a way to get an education and care for his family.
By the time he was deployed to Iraq a year ago he had been in training for one year.
"I was ready to die and defend my country thinking it would make a better life for my (now ex-) wife and daughter," Anderson said.
But that changed. During one of the most dramatic sequences Anderson was driving in a howitzer tank. His friend had just dropped down from his lookout position out of the hatch, bleeding and dying in Anderson's lap.
"I had to immediately take the lookout position and my gun was aimed at this kid who was running by," Anderson said. "It looked like he was carrying something. I pulled the trigger but nothing happened. The safety was still on. That's when I saw it was just an innocent kid. I thought, 'What is my country doing to me? What is my country making me do?' "
Anderson later won a medal for bravery during a firefight. He was leaning out the hatch of his howitzer when a bomb landed near by. Shrapnel ripped through his right side.
When Anderson came home for Christmas he said he was lonely. No one could understand what he had seen and survived.
He said it was impossible to talk to strangers, difficult to talk to even his family.
He said deciding to come to Canada was the most difficult decision he's ever had to make.
"I understand the consequences are the most severe," Anderson said. "I may never be able to go to the United States again. I may never be able to go home. But there was no other decision I could make."
The night before he left for Canada, Anderson saw his daughter.
"I told her I love her, I told her that her daddy will always love her."
U.S. deserters put their faith in Canada
By Jason Botchford, Toronto Sun
Hundreds of American soldiers are preparing to come to Canada if this country again opens its doors to war resisters.
Toronto lawyer Jeffry House, who is representing Jeremy Hinzman's landmark refugee case, said 200 have contacted him alone, mostly since George W. Bush was re-elected in November, looking for a way out.
Darrell Anderson knows why.
Seven months in combat
After serving in combat in Baghdad for seven months, the 22-year-old Kentucky-bred soldier turned his back on his home, his family -- including his 4-year-old daughter -- and his country to come to Toronto two weeks ago so he didn't have to go back to Iraq and train his gun on one more innocent child.
He is the most recent soldier to desert the American army and come to Canada
At home in Lexington, KY, over Christmas, Anderson read about Hinzman, a paratrooper turned Iraq-war-deserter, who is waiting for a Canadian tribunal to decide next month whether he is a refugee for refusing to fight.
"I saw his story and I saw hope for me," Anderson said. "I was not going back to Iraq to kill innocent people. I couldn't see myself making another decision. I didn't want to live a life where I was hiding in my own country."
House, himself a Vietnam draft dodger, said there are many others like Anderson waiting for the results of Hinzman's landmark case. Never before has there been a Canadian case dealing with American deserters.
"There are a lot people contacting me, wanting to know what would happen if they came to Canada," House said. "They are looking for ways out."
An estimated 5,500 men and women have deserted since the invasion of Iraq, reflecting Washington's growing problems with troop morale.
Anderson is the most recent soldier to come here. He is one of six known American military deserters who fled to Canada rather than go to war or face jail terms. All of them insist they were acting responsibly by refusing to fight what they all call an unjust war.
Anderson made his decision after going home at Christmas following seven months of combat in Iraq, where he won a bravery medal.
"It is just so intense in Iraq," Anderson said. "Many people will face the same question I had. I asked myself, 'Can I die over there? Can I go back and fight this unjust war?' "
The answer two weeks ago, just before Anderson slipped into a car and drove to Canada, was an emphatic ''no.'' But Anderson concedes that his decision was really made for him just about a year ago when he was still in Iraq.
In Baghdad, a car had approached too close to his platoon. He could hear other American soldiers screaming at him to open fire. When the motorist hit the brakes, sparks flew. The intensity piqued. People screamed: "What are you doing? Why aren't you firing?"
Anderson didn't move.
"I felt no threat, I felt the car posed no threat. I wasn't in any danger," Anderson said. "And then the windows rolled down and it was an innocent family. Two parents and some kids in the back. If I would have fired I would have killed innocent kids."
Anderson said he then turned to those fellow soldiers who were screaming at him.
"After that they said, 'Next time you open fire, you do what you're told,' " Anderson said. "They were ordering me to shoot, ordering me to kill innocent people."
Lee Zaslofsky, of Resisters, a Toronto-based group dedicated to helping deserters, is lobbying the government to make it easier for deserters like Anderson to come to Canada.
"We want the government to make it clear that they are going to be welcoming people and allowing them to stay," said Zaslofsky, one of an estimated 60,000 Americans who came here after to dodge the Vietnam War draft. "It's what Canadians want. It's what Canada has done in the past.
"The government should bite the bullet and step up to the plate and do what is right. These are human beings. Do we want to offer them up as sacrifices to the altar of good relations with George Bush?"
During the Vietnam War, Canada had one of the most open immigration policies in the world. People who showed up at the border were given "landed-immigrant" status on the spot. In 1969, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau instructed immigration officials not to discriminate against applicants because they hadn't fulfilled their military obligations in other countries.
But immigration in Canada now is much more restricted and the country is divided over whether the new era of deserters should be allowed to stay.
Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board has already ruled that Hinzman's claim that the war was illegal was not relevant to his case. The board is expected to determine in March whether Hinzman proved that he would face social persecution if sent home.
The United States Army treats deserters as common criminals, posting them on "wanted" lists with the FBI, state police forces and department of homeland security border patrols.
Unlike the Vietnam era, Canada has not encouraged deserters to seek asylum here and detractors are quick to note that this generation of American troops voluntarily signed up.
Still, there are a large number of people in Toronto willing and ready to help any soldiers who come here.
A group of deserters and old Vietnam War draft dodgers meet every week in Toronto. Sometimes they watch football games, other times they play cards, but all the time they talk about Iraq and the decisions they've made.
Cliff Cornell, 24, came to Toronto Jan. 8. The Arkansas resident was stationed in Georgia. His platoon was to be deployed to Iraq just after this past Christmas. He did not want to go.
He joined the army for a chance at an education but when he saw and heard what was happening in Iraq he made his decision.
He said being able to meet Anderson has helped him immeasurably.
"He wanted to know if it was really as bad as he's heard," Anderson said. "It is. Others ask me that. They want to know if they made the right decision. I tell them how you take your crappy Humvees out in the morning and ride them around Baghdad, hoping not to get blown up."
Anderson joined the army when he was in high school. He had just had a daughter, Tatum, and looked to the army as a way to better himself, a way to get an education and care for his family.
By the time he was deployed to Iraq a year ago he had been in training for one year.
"I was ready to die and defend my country thinking it would make a better life for my (now ex-) wife and daughter," Anderson said.
But that changed. During one of the most dramatic sequences Anderson was driving in a howitzer tank. His friend had just dropped down from his lookout position out of the hatch, bleeding and dying in Anderson's lap.
"I had to immediately take the lookout position and my gun was aimed at this kid who was running by," Anderson said. "It looked like he was carrying something. I pulled the trigger but nothing happened. The safety was still on. That's when I saw it was just an innocent kid. I thought, 'What is my country doing to me? What is my country making me do?' "
Anderson later won a medal for bravery during a firefight. He was leaning out the hatch of his howitzer when a bomb landed near by. Shrapnel ripped through his right side.
When Anderson came home for Christmas he said he was lonely. No one could understand what he had seen and survived.
He said it was impossible to talk to strangers, difficult to talk to even his family.
He said deciding to come to Canada was the most difficult decision he's ever had to make.
"I understand the consequences are the most severe," Anderson said. "I may never be able to go to the United States again. I may never be able to go home. But there was no other decision I could make."
The night before he left for Canada, Anderson saw his daughter.
"I told her I love her, I told her that her daddy will always love her."
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