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War resisters are not criminals

By now, media has informed most Canadians that the Harper government has issued a Sept. 20, 2012, deportation order to Kimberly Rivera of Toronto and her young family, the same way it already deported two other former U.S. soldiers who disagree with the unjust Iraq war.

Dear Earl Dreeshen (Red Deer MP),

By now, media has informed most Canadians that the Harper government has issued a Sept. 20, 2012, deportation order to Kimberly Rivera of Toronto and her young family, the same way it already deported two other former U.S. soldiers who disagree with the unjust Iraq war.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has had Citizenship and Immigration Canada lawyers intervene in the individual hearings and court cases of war resisters. He publicly labelled them “bogus” refugees, biasing the decisions in their cases. And he took the unprecedented step of issuing a bulletin to all Immigration officers requiring them to red-flag applications that involve war resisters, labeling them as “criminally inadmissible.” ( http://resisters.ca/operational-bulletin-202/)

Faith communities, human rights organizations, refugee rights groups and thousands of Canadians have called on the minister to implement the motions passed in Parliament to allow war resistors to remain in Canada, or, at a minimum, to allow the individual cases to be heard on their own merits — the same free and independent consideration that Minister Kenney insists was given to Conrad Black.

I request that you, as my member of Parliament, press the prime minister and Minister Kenney to drop proceedings to remove war resistors from Canada.

Ken Collier

Red Deer AB