CANADA:A FORMER US national guardsman will learn next month whether he can remain in Canada, where he has sought refuge from military service in Iraq.
If a deportation order against him is not lifted, Corey Glass will become the first US army deserter to be repatriated from Canada to the US. Once home, he could face anything from a dishonourable discharge to time in a military prison.
The former soldier was initially ordered to leave the country by tomorrow, but his departure date was extended yesterday to July 10th, after an appeal by his lawyer was approved.
He said: "I feel like things are maybe going to turn around for the best. People are working really hard on this." Mr Glass is the most visible face of a movement that pits Canada's humanitarian tradition of accepting asylum seekers and refugees against the country's conservative government.
He came to Canada in August 2006. He had joined the national guard in 2002, hoping to carry out humanitarian and disaster relief work, but was instead deployed to Iraq in 2005 to work as a military intelligence officer north of Baghdad.
After telling his commanding officer that he couldn't continue fighting in a war he didn't believe in, Mr Glass was sent home for two weeks. But instead of rejoining his unit, he deserted, arriving eight months later in Toronto at a centre for war resisters run by a 63-year-old who left the US to escape the Vietnam war draft.
Last week, Canada's House of Commons passed a non-binding resolution urging the government to allow deserters - or war resisters as many prefer to be called - to stay. The resolution was inspired by the plight of Mr Glass and 40 others who have applied for refugee status. There are thought to be 200 deserters from the US military living in Canada.
But the government argues that Mr Glass and the others did not exhaust legal alternatives in the US and have not made a case that they face persecution should they return home. It also argues that those fleeing to Canada now are in a different situation to those who came during the Vietnam war. - (Guardian service)