He said he was lured into the Army by a recruiter's slick pitch and the promise of a $20,000 signing bonus. After joining, though, his bonus only came to half that amount, he says, and he soon realized he could not support the Army's mission in Iraq, nor could he stomach the thought of having to kill a person.
With his inquiries to get out of the Army as a conscientious objector seemingly facing long odds, McCall made plans to hit the road instead, speaking nonchalantly with the Indy about his travel plans the night he left.
Getting into Canada did not turn out to be as easy as McCall expected. Canadian officials tried to turn him back at the border on Sept. 19, when he claimed to be a tourist, he says. He was jailed for two days after he changed his story and said he was seeking refugee status.
The above is from Anthony Lane's "Northern resister: Former Fort Carson soldier finding new life in Canada" (Colorado Springs Independent) and he's providing an update on Brad McCall. McCall is among the many war resisters who've gone public in 2007 and whose stories the bulk of independent media couldn't be bothered with telling because there were so many other, so many more 'important' things to cover. Brett Clarkson's "AWOL soldiers have one last shot" (Ottawa Sun) reminds that not only did war resisters in Candad qualify as news for their stands and due to the ongoing nature of the illegal war, there were also addition developments in 2007:
The small but growing community of Iraq war resisters who've fled to Canada from their native U.S. are hinging their hopes on a motion to be introduced in Parliament in February by NDP MP Olivia Chow.
Chow, who fiercely opposes the Iraq war, is the last hope for the 50 or so deserters, who face deportation after the Supreme Court refused to hear a final bid by former U.S. soldiers Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey to be given refugee status in Canada.
With all their legal avenues exhausted, the deserters are hoping enough politicians in Ottawa will vote in favour of Chow's motion to allow them to be granted refugee status in Canada.
Among the many key aspects of the year 2007 was the repeated silence on war resisters. It will be noted in full in the year-in-review. A number of e-mails are asking why that's not up already? I could be wrong but I thought that usually went up on January 1st? The plan is for it to go up January 1st (and only a third of written thus far). Martha and Shirley plan to post their look at books in 2007 prior to the first and Kat will be doing a look at music in 2007 either on the first of January or before.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
anthony lane
brad mccall
