War dodgers urge PM to let them stay
American soldiers who fled to Canada rather than fight in Iraq joined activists and a Liberal backbencher on Friday to urge the government of Justin Trudeau to end legal action against them and grant them residency status.
Bolstered by a recent British report that found no justification for the bloody U.S.-led invasion, the war resisters pleaded for the Liberal government to make good on promises to end their state of limbo.
“I’m shocked and dismayed that it’s still going on,” former U.S. Marine Cpl. Dean Walcott, 34, who came to Canada in 2006, told a news conference.
Walcott, who lives with his wife and Canadian-born children in Peterborough, Ont., is one of four American soldiers whose cases are due in Federal Court in September.
Activists say the litigation is going forward even though Trudeau expressed support for the war dodgers during last year’s election campaign and told The Canadian Press earlier this year that his government was actively looking into the issue.
Also facing judicial action is Jeremy Brockway, 31, another U.S. Marine who returned from Iraq in 2007 with severe posttraumatic stress syndrome that keeps him largely housebound.
He came to Canada in 2008 after being ordered to deploy to Iraq for a third time.
His wife, Ashlea, choked back tears as she described the stress of not knowing whether they and their three Canadian-born children – aged 8, 6, and 3 – will be forced to leave their home in Port Colborne, Ont., and return to the U.S. to face a possible court martial.
“We came to Canada to save his life,” she said. “Canada is our home and is the only home our children have known.”