Canadian Parliament to vote on American deserters

Today, the Canadian MP's will hold a vote on whether to extend amnesty to American Military deserters.

www.macleans.ca...

OTTAWA - American military deserters who fled to Canada rather than serve in Iraq hope Parliament will grant them what the immigration system and the courts have denied them: a safe haven.

The vote is expected to pass easily as it has support from all 3 opposition parties. The problem they are going to face though is it isn't a binding resolution. The Government of Canada can and will ignore it if it does pass today.

There have been several American's who have tried to gain refugee status through our legal system but have failed. One of these, Corey Glass, is due to be deported next week.

I'm of two minds on this issue. First, they tried our legal and immigration system and failed. Therefore, they should leave the country. They decided to go that route so they should abide by the decision.

On the other hand, most of these people have done one tour of duty in Iraq and refuse to redeploy, as they feel it is an unjust and illegal war. The premise for the invasion was proven to be wrong.

I know that they volunteered for service and as such, should be held to their contracts. They don't get to decide here they are deployed. But what if they feel there orders to deploy are to a conflict that may be against international laws and treaties?

I don't know, I'm torn on this issue.

As expected, the vote passed but the Government is refusing to abide by it.

www.cbc.ca...

While all three opposition parties supported the non-binding NDP motion Tuesday, the government voted it down and is certain to ignore it.

I highly doubt Harper will do anything with this resolution except ignore it like it didn't happen. He can't be seen as being on the side of anti-war with our involvement in Afghanistan.