Urgent! Call Canada today to let U.S. war resisters stay
Resisters Cliff Cornell and Chris Teske ordered
to leave
Canada by Friday, January 23 |
The Conservative government of Canada moving swiftly to deport
five U.S. war resisters and their families by the end of next week!
Courage to Resist, January 22, 2009
Phone Canadian officials Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Prime
Minister Stephen Harper to tell them you support war resisters. Please
ask them to stop the deportation proceedings against all U.S. Iraq War
Resisters; and implement the June 2008 Parliamentary motion to allow
war resisters to apply for Permanent Resident status in Canada.
The War Resister Support Campaign (Canada) is currently in the midst of a week of action. Please join the North
American “phone-in” today and tomorrow. The idea is to keep those
phones ringing!
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney
Phone 613-954-1064 (Ministry office) and/or 613-992-2235 (Parliamentary Office)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Phone 613-992-4211
Resisters facing deportation this week
Cliff Cornell has been ordered to leave Canada today. An Arkansas native, Cliff left for Toronto, Canada in January 2005
to resist deployment to Iraq.
"In my heart I felt it's wrong," Cliff
has said of his decision to resist deployment. "I've been hearing a lot
of people talking about all the innocent people who are being killed
and the prisons over there where they've been torturing people. I just
didn't want to be a part of it."
A local Canadian supporter noted that, "Many supporters
on Gabriola Island (in British Columbia) are planning a send-off, and
it's our job to raise hell on the phone lines today!”
Cliff is expected to return to his last duty station at Fort Stewart, Georgia to face a military court martial.
Chris Teske has been ordered to leave Canada tomorrow
(Friday). After two tours in
Afghanistan and an honorable discharge, Chris was recalled to the Army
to train machine gunners in Iraq. At the time he refused citing "the
racism against the Muslim culture in the army there."
Chris is expected to return to his last duty station at Fort Drum in upstate New York to face a military courts martial.
Kimberly Rivera, her husband Mario and three children have
been ordered to leave Canada by Tuesday, January 27. Kimberly grew up
in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb east of Dallas.
If forced to leave Canada, she is expected to be returned to Fort Carson, Colorado for military courts martial.
Patrick Hart, his wife Jill and their son have been ordered to leave a week from today, Thursday, January 29.
Army Sgt. Hart is a New York native from a military family. He
served nine years in the Army prior to turning against the war in Iraq
while stationed in Kuwait during 2004. While on leave in 2005, went
AWOL rather than be deployed to Iraq. Patrick declared, “If you want to
support the troops, bring them home” after arriving in Canada.
If forced to leave Canada, he is expected to return to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for military courts martial.
The following day, Friday, January 30, Dean Walcott has been
ordered out as well. A Marine MP from Connecticut, Dean went AWOL
(actually, "UA" for unauthorized absence in Marine lingo) in 2007
following an Iraq deployment and has lived in Canada since. "As far as
I know there's an FBI warrant out for my arrest," Dean told a TV crew
recently. "I reenlisted before I knew anything was wrong. (I) was with
the military police and all we ever did was run convoys around a very
little part of Iraq."
Next steps in supporting U.S. war resisters in Canada
These “removal orders” mark a turning point for war resisters in
Canada. Prior to today, Robin Long has been the only war resister to be
deported from Canada since the Vietnam War. Robin was convicted by an
Army court martial upon his forced return and sentenced to 15 months
confinement. He is currently being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig
at Miramar, just north of San Diego.
Courage to Resist will be working with these resisters and our
allies nationwide in order to create communities of support for these
courageous individuals, and to make U.S.-based civilian legal defense
available.
Gerry Condon of Project Safe Haven notes, “We must prepare to defend war resisters who are deported and
court-martialed. We need to build communities of sanctuary in the U.S.
And we need to demand that President Obama grant amnesty to all war
resisters.”
After making the two phone calls, send an email
Follow up your phone message with a brief email to Minister Kenney (minister@cic.gc.ca
) and Prime Minister Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca).
Please CC your email to Canadian opposition party leaders:
Liberal party immigration critic Borys Wrzesnewskyj (wrzesnewskyj.b@parl.gc.ca)
NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow (chow.o@parl.gc.ca)
Bloc Québécois immigration critic Thierry St-Cyr (st-cyr.t@parl.gc.ca)
And finally, War Resisters Support Campaign (resisters@sympatico.ca) |