Important Dates
On Dec. 6, 2007, the Canadian Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration adopted the following motion:
The Committee recommends that the government immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members (partners and dependents), who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations and do not have a criminal record, to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and that the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions that may have already commenced against such individuals.On June 3, 2008, the Parliament of Canada voted 137 to 110 in favor of the above recommendation to the government (see list of names: ). However, the next day, the Toronto Star printed the following:
But the motion is non-binding and the victory was bittersweet as the government is likely to ignore it. "We're worried that (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper might not follow the advice of a majority of the members of the House of Commons who voted today," NDP Leader Jack Layton told reporters yesterday. "He has had a tendency to turn his back on the message of peace that so many Canadians would want to bring forward and the welcome that they would want to offer to those who have expressed this particular courage." The motion – which passed 137–110 – comes about a week before 25-year-old Corey Glass is supposed to leave Canada voluntarily after the former national guardsman was rejected as a refugee and ordered out of the country.
On July 4, 2008, US Iraq war resister Joshua Key won a Federal Court (Canada) appeal thus forcing the Canadian Refugee Board to re-examine his claim for refugee status in Canada. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's July 4, 2008 coverage of the story said that there is now a possibility that he "could qualify as a refugee."
On July 9, 2008 the Toronto Star reported that Corey Glass "is permitted to remain in Canada until the Federal Court makes a decision on ... cases for judicial review.”
On July 16, 2008, the Toronto Star reported that Robin Long "was ordered out of the country last week...He was deported yesterday"
On Feb 12, 2009, the The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration again passed a non-binding motion reaffirming Parliament's June 2008 vote which recommended that the government let Iraq War resisters stay in Canada. (Because a new session of Parliament began, the whole process had to begin again.) A month and a half later, on March 30, 2009, the House of Commons again voted in a non-binding motion 129 to 125 in favour of the committee's recommendation.
Read more about this topic: War Resisters Support Campaign
Famous quotes containing the words important and/or dates:
“However much we may differ in the choice of the measures which should guide the administration of the government, there can be but little doubt in the minds of those who are really friendly to the republican features of our system that one of its most important securities consists in the separation of the legislative and executive powers at the same time that each is acknowledged to be supreme, in the will of the people constitutionally expressed.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)