|
MEDIA RELEASE
May 21, 2008
Iraq
war resister faces deportation from Canada
MEDIA
CONFERENCE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21
1 P.M.
TRINITY-ST. PAUL'S CENTRE, 427
BLOOR STREET WEST
(1 block west of Spadina)
US Iraq war resister Corey Glass was told todaythat his application to stay in
Canada has been rejected and he now facesdeportation.
Glass, 25, came to Canada
in August 2006 after serving in Iraq as a Military Intelligence Sergeant.
"What I saw in Iraq convinced me that the war is illegal and immoral. I could
not in good conscience continue to take part in it," said Glass. "I
came here because Canada did not join the Iraq War.
"Also, I knew Canada
had welcomed many Americans during the Vietnam War,"
It is estimated
that several hundred Iraq War resisters are currently in Canada, many of them
living underground.
"Corey
Glass would be the first Iraq War resister to be deported from Canada. He would
face imprisonment and severe penalties in the US," said Lee Zaslofsky, coordinator
of the War Resisters Support Campaign and a Vietnam War resister. "This goes
against Canada's tradition of welcoming Americans who disagree with policies like
slavery and the Vietnam War."
On December 6, 2007, the Standing Committee
on Citizenship and Immigration called on the Canadian Government 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 or deportation actions against such individuals."
"The Government should implement that recommendation immediately," said
author Lawrence Hill. "Corey Glass had the courage to listen to his conscience.
He is working hard to build a new life in this country. He should be allowed to
stay."
"We must not forget that the invasion of Iraq was a war justified
only by lies, greed and stupidity for which permission was not sought nor granted
to the Bush administration by the United Nations," said Alexandre Trudeau,
son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and director of the documentary film Embedded In
Baghdad.
"This outlaw war has ravaged the Iraqi landscape, destroyed
tens of thousands of lives and sorely sapped the American treasury all while filling
the coffers of profiteers," he said.
"Those Americans who served
in Iraq, and have come to Canada to avoid being pressed into further participation
in the indignities of the American occupation there, are brave men and women of
principle who should be given a chance to become landed in Canada. Like many Vietnam
draft dodgers before them, their heightened sense of morality and truth can only
be a benefit to our nation."
A community forum on the plight of US war resisters in Canada will be held tonight,
May 21, at 7 p.m. at Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue (at St. George) in Toronto.
The event will be moderated by CBC radio host Andy Barrie and will feature US
war resisters Joshua Key, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass and others.
For
further information: Lee Zaslofsky, (416) 598-1222; Michelle Robidoux, (416) 856-5008
|
