WINNIPEG/TORONTO: Vigilers pray for Canada to stop deportation of Robin Long and all war resisters
July 21st, 2008
in:
CPTnet
21 July 2007
WINNIPEG/TORONTO: Vigilers pray for Canada to stop deportation of Robin Long and all war resisters
As part of a nation-wide day of action, Christian Peacemaker Team members Joel Klassen and Doug Pritchard led one hundred and fifty participants in a 10 July Winnipeg vigil, at the People's Summit of the Mennonite Churches of Canada and the U.S. The vigilers called upon the Canadian government to permit U.S. war resister Robin Long to stay in Canada and to implement the 3 June 2008 parliamentary motion affirming that war resisters should have the right to apply for permanent resident status.
In response to an invitation from CPT, Mennonite Central Committee Canada and Mennonite Church Canada, summit participants called the offices of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a week, impressing upon them the importance of letting the resisters stay.
Mennonite Central Committee Peace and Justice staff person Esther Epp Tiessen said that Canada should accept the "growing international recognition of the rights of conscientious objectors," and that Mennonites in particular have "benefited immensely from governmental provisions which have exempted conscientious objectors from military service" and thus have "reasons of solidarity and perhaps even obligation" to support war resisters. She also noted that two thirds of Ontarians support allowing the war resisters to stay.
Sam Steiner, himself a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, read an excerpt from war resister Joshua Key's book A Deserter's Life. Key wrote, "I know the difference between right and wrong. I've known it since I was six years old. I had to suspend it for a while in Iraq... I cannot do these things any longer."
Local resident Michael Welch, currently undertaking a seventy-two hour fast from food and water in solidarity with the war resisters, attended the vigil as well. In Toronto, members of CPT participated in a human chain of solidarity along University Ave. between the Federal Court building and the US Consulate.
Robin Long served as a tanker in the U.S. Army for two years before fleeing to Canada in 2005 when the U.S. military ordered his unit to Iraq. Explaining his own unwillingness to fight in Iraq, Long has said, "I still don't think that Bush has proven we have any reason to be over there, and I would be wrong to be a tool of destruction."
Despite recent federal court rulings raising the possibility of recognizing war resisters as refugees, Long was jailed in Nelson, B.C. on 8 July and deported on 15 July. On 8 July, war resister Corey Glass received a federal court reprieve from imminent deportation.
At least two hundred U.S. war resisters reside in Canada. Long was the first the Canadian government deported.
For photos of the 10 July vigil, go to http://cpt.org/gallery/album253 <http://cpt.org/gallery/album253
21 July 2007
WINNIPEG/TORONTO: Vigilers pray for Canada to stop deportation of Robin Long and all war resisters
As part of a nation-wide day of action, Christian Peacemaker Team members Joel Klassen and Doug Pritchard led one hundred and fifty participants in a 10 July Winnipeg vigil, at the People's Summit of the Mennonite Churches of Canada and the U.S. The vigilers called upon the Canadian government to permit U.S. war resister Robin Long to stay in Canada and to implement the 3 June 2008 parliamentary motion affirming that war resisters should have the right to apply for permanent resident status.
In response to an invitation from CPT, Mennonite Central Committee Canada and Mennonite Church Canada, summit participants called the offices of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a week, impressing upon them the importance of letting the resisters stay.
Mennonite Central Committee Peace and Justice staff person Esther Epp Tiessen said that Canada should accept the "growing international recognition of the rights of conscientious objectors," and that Mennonites in particular have "benefited immensely from governmental provisions which have exempted conscientious objectors from military service" and thus have "reasons of solidarity and perhaps even obligation" to support war resisters. She also noted that two thirds of Ontarians support allowing the war resisters to stay.
Sam Steiner, himself a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, read an excerpt from war resister Joshua Key's book A Deserter's Life. Key wrote, "I know the difference between right and wrong. I've known it since I was six years old. I had to suspend it for a while in Iraq... I cannot do these things any longer."
Local resident Michael Welch, currently undertaking a seventy-two hour fast from food and water in solidarity with the war resisters, attended the vigil as well. In Toronto, members of CPT participated in a human chain of solidarity along University Ave. between the Federal Court building and the US Consulate.
Robin Long served as a tanker in the U.S. Army for two years before fleeing to Canada in 2005 when the U.S. military ordered his unit to Iraq. Explaining his own unwillingness to fight in Iraq, Long has said, "I still don't think that Bush has proven we have any reason to be over there, and I would be wrong to be a tool of destruction."
Despite recent federal court rulings raising the possibility of recognizing war resisters as refugees, Long was jailed in Nelson, B.C. on 8 July and deported on 15 July. On 8 July, war resister Corey Glass received a federal court reprieve from imminent deportation.
At least two hundred U.S. war resisters reside in Canada. Long was the first the Canadian government deported.
For photos of the 10 July vigil, go to http://cpt.org/gallery/album253 <http://cpt.org/gallery/album253