A deeply moral issue that we dare not ignore
Between 1965 and 1973, Canada sheltered more than 50,000 Americans, mostly so-called "draft dodgers" who objected to the Vietnam War. Many Canadians saw it as an "immoral" war, including then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who said, "[For] those who make a conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war...Canada should be a refuge from militarism."
Now, some 30 years later, the U.S. is again caught up in an unpopular war. While Americans are not being conscripted into military service, U.S. soldiers are again fleeing to Canada in increasing numbers and earning media attention with their legal campaigns to stay here. The War Resisters Support Group has helped more than 60 American soldiers make refugee applications in Canada.
What are Canadians to do with American soldiers who willingly signed up for military duty when they seek sanctuary from war?
For Christians the question carries particular weight as much of the language used by American war resisters supporters is distinctly moral in tone. More than 60 religious organizations backed a petition asking Ottawa to halt deportations of U.S. soldiers who have come to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq.
But many other groups offering support to U.S. war resisters are not at all Christian. Trade unions, poverty activists and anarchists are knee-deep into this movement. These groups are often uninterested in religious faith and sometimes directly opposed to it, but speak in moral language.
Some Canadians argue that a soldier who voluntarily signs up for duty and then decides not to carry out orders betrays an oath and a trust. Others hold that some (or even all) wars are immoral, unjust and evi and that Canadians must help to any soldier who flees from such conflicts. During the Second World War the Nuremberg Tribunal argued that soldiers have a "moral" duty to refuse to carry out illegal orders.
Support for soldiers
An Angus Reid poll released this summer shows that three in five Canadians (64 per cent) favour giving U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents. In Quebec support is at 70 per cent.
And what will we say if Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan refuse to fight the Taliban for religious or moral reasons?
With the number of Canadian deaths in Afghanistan approaching 100 and with Canadian soldiers increasingly targeted, we may be faced with own war resisters issue.
During the recent federal election many Christian groups did a very good job of speaking out on issues that mattered to Christians. For example, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) provided an "election kit" to help evangelicals ask candidates some good questions on the environment, poverty at home and around the globe, prostitution and human trafficking, refugees and other issues of concern to Christians—family integrity, freedom of religion and respect for life.
While the issue of American war resisters wasn't specifically included in EFC's list, putting moral issues on the table shows that some Christians aren't ready to abandon the public square.
Still, the fact that it is the usual religious groups—Quakers, Mennonites, Unitarians—and left-wing groups within the United Church and the Roman Catholic Church that are the most vocal about war resisters means that the vast majority of the faithful in this country aren't involved in a significant issue dripping with moral implications.
Christians need to inject a dose of morality into our public debates so that we can start asking questions about right and wrong. Exploiting workers isn't just an issue about fuzzy "human rights" or economics; it's about human dignity. Environmental integrity isn't just about loving nature and preserving it for future generations; it's about respecting what God has created.
Government policy on refugees and war resisters isn't just about whether or not the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are justified; it's about real people faced with deep moral issues about when picking up a gun to kill another human being becomes justifiable.
We must find our voices or risk having others speak for us.
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