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Cindy Sheehan Asks Canadians to Offer Sanctuary to U.S. War Resisters |
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Written by Wire Services
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Thursday, 04 May 2006 |
Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist and mother of an American soldier who was killed in Iraq, has appealed to Canadians for support at a press conference in Ottawa today. She joins the War Resisters Support Campaign and the Council of Canadians in demanding that the federal government make a provision allowing U.S. soldiers resisting war in Iraq to be granted sanctuary in Canada.
When her son first told her he was reluctant to fight in Iraq, Sheehan offered to drive him to Canada instead. "I wish I had been more persistent," says the founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.
Canada has offered sanctuary for U.S. war resisters in the past. During the Vietnam War, over 50,000 U.S. war resisters came to this country. However, the situation of resisters today has dramatically changed according to Michelle Robidoux of the War Resisters Support Campaign. "Courageous young men like Jeremy Hinzman are doing exactly what Canada did - refusing to participate in an illegal war," says Robidoux. "Yet they are being denied asylum by the Immigration and Refugee Board. We need a policy which will allow these young men of conscience to be given status in this country," she concludes.
Sheehan also criticized Canada's military presence in Afghanistan saying Canadian soldiers in that country are merely freeing up more Americans to fight in Iraq.
"More than ever before, the federal government is bowing to U.S. pressure to play a more aggressive role in the war on terror," says Victoria Gibb-Carsley, director of campaigns and communications at the Council of Canadians. "Canada's failure to grant sanctuary to U.S. war resisters reveals our government's unwillingness to maintain our independence from U.S. military and foreign policy objectives."
Canadians overwhelmingly oppose the war in Iraq and have consistently shown, poll after poll, that they see Canada's international role as that of a peacekeeping state. "It is up to the Canadian public and organizations like ours to remind this government of the priorities of Canadians," says Gibb-Carsley.
The War Resisters Support Campaign and the Council of Canadians are part of a broad-based movement to support U.S. war resisters in Canada. |
