American soldiers who deserted the US army because of their opposition to the war in Iraq are fighting a legal battle to obtain political asylum in Canada, Tamam Ahmed Jama reports from Ottawa On 4 July, a Canadian federal court ordered the Immigration and Refugee Board to re-examine the case of Joshua Key, an American soldier who deserted the United States army after serving in Iraq. "It's a huge victory for numerous soldiers who are here and maybe others who are thinking of coming here," said Key's American-born lawyer, Jeffry House, who himself came to Canada during the Vietnam War to evade military service and who now represents Iraq war deserters seeking political asylum in Canada. Key, a native of Oklahoma, enlisted in the US army in 2002 to provide for his family. When President George W Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq the following year, he was sent to Ramadi. The 30-year-old father of four says he participated in more than 200 house-raids in six and half months. During those raids, he says the soldiers found, time after time, terrified families and no trace of terrorist activity. "Children cry, women scream at you; we were tormenting these people," Key told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We never found anything -- no potential terrorists, no cache of weapons, nothing. After a while, you start to ask yourself: 'Why are we continuing to do this?'" Key says he witnessed civilians being beaten, maimed or shot with little or no provocation. Among the haunting memories of the short period he spent in Iraq are watching his comrades kicking around the severed heads of dead Iraqis "like a soccer ball" and witnessing the killing of a seven-year-old girl whom he used to give leftovers of army rations. "She was coming across the street as she used to and, suddenly, her head exploded like a mushroom," he says. "I had a feeling someone in my platoon did that." Key says he was shocked by the extent of lack of accountability for what the soldiers did. "You could make up any excuse you wanted to kill an Iraqi and no one would questions," he says. Key says he reported to his superiors some of the incidents that he found outrageous. "I was told it was none of my business," he says. "You're not supposed to have sympathy; you're not supposed to have a conscience. You're supposed to be the 'perfect' American soldier -- a killing machine who does as he is told. But I realised that it was my concern and it was my business, that I did have my conscience." When he came home on leave in late 2003, Key knew he did not want to return to Iraq. He sought legal advice and was told that he had two options: go back to Iraq or go to jail. He decided to go underground and, after 14 months of hiding in the US, crossed the border into Canada with his wife and children. Key is the author, with award-winning Canadian journalist and writer Lawrence Hill, of The Deserter's Tale. The book, published last year, is a scathing indictment of how the war in Iraq is being waged and Key is unrepentant. "I will never apologise for deserting the American army," he writes. "I deserted an injustice and leaving was the only right thing to do. I owe one apology and one apology only, and that is to the people of Iraq." Central to the argument for political asylum of the deserters is that the war in Iraq is illegal and that they do not want to be forced to commit international crimes. But the Immigration and Refugee Board had refused to consider the legality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq in its assessment of the deserters applications for asylum. In its decision to turn down Key's application, the board said that, while Key may have had to violate the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, he was not required to commit war crimes "systematically". Federal court Justice Robert Barnes disagreed with that analysis, saying, "Officially condoned military misconduct, falling well short of a war crime, may support a claim to refugee protection." The court ruled that, even though the US is a democracy, an American army deserter had no legal way to object to his country's war against Iraq and there were no guarantees that he would be treated fairly for refusing to fight. There is a historical precedent for this. During the Vietnam War, then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau allowed American draft resisters into Canada. Over the course of that conflict, more than 50,000 American resisters and army deserters came to Canada and were granted permanent resident status. The ruling on Key's application for asylum may affect other US soldiers who have come to Canada because of their opposition to the war in Iraq. It is not known exactly how many American army deserters have entered Canada over the past few years, but some estimates put the number in the hundreds. In December 2007, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration adopted a motion recommending, "that the government immediately implement a programme to allow conscientious objectors (and their immediate family members), who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations and do not have a criminal record, to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and that the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions that may have already commenced against such individuals." The government did not heed that recommendation and Corey Glass, the first on a list of Iraq War Resisters who were to be ordered to leave Canada, was notified in May. Glass, 25, announced his deportation order to the media in Toronto, prompting Canadian parliament to pass a motion in favour of allowing American conscientious objectors and their families to remain in Canada and be granted permanent resident status on 3 June. In a rare moment of real democracy, the opposition parties banded together to outvote Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ruling Conservatives to pass the motion. But the victory is bittersweet as the measure is non-binding and there are fears already that the government will try ignore it, if it feels it can get away with it, i.e., back to "democracy as usual". The Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign (WRSC), founded in 2004, is mobilising support among Canadians to persuade the government to offer sanctuary to all American military personnel who wish to come to Canada because of their opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. "The Canadian people and the Canadian parliament have come down solidly on the side of the war resisters and want them to be allowed to obtain permanent resident status in Canada," the WRSC said in a statement, reacting to the federal court ruling. "This decision reinforces the need for the Minister [of Citizenship and Immigration, Diane Finley] to act quickly and implement a provision to allow US war resisters to stay in Canada." Some find the idea of American "refugees" in Canada rather amusing. But the hostility against them and their immanent incarceration if they are deported to the US is very real, and there is widespread sympathy for their cause among Canadians. "This young man has the courage to stand up to a system that encourages degradation and abuse of others," reads a comment about Key posted in the Toronto Star, Canada's highest- circulation newspaper. "We should welcome him with open arms to Canada for his sense of truth, justice and goodness." Another comment reads, "Just when I was about to lose faith in Canada, it has been restored! If this man is returned to the US, he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In his book, The Deserter's Tale, I was sickened to read what he went through."
