Delirium wrote:
Ray Saintonge wrote:
As to Canada's role, there was nothing to
apologize for. If a draft
were reinstituted we should certainly be open to accepting refugees
from it.
Oh, I don't disagree. I was just pointing it out as a particularly
striking bit of evidence that the rest of the world wasn't only
against the US war in Vietnam, but so actively against it as to be
willing to take whatever legal means they had at their disposal to
work against it (short of sanctions, of course).
As for this war, I seem to recall that at least one Canadian court has
ruled the opposite---that regardless of the legality of the initial
invasion, since the current occupation is sanctioned by a UN Security
Council resolution, it's not illegal and therefore those avoiding it
are not elegible for refugee status.
I'm not familiar with the case; please give a citation if you have one.
What makes me most doubtful is the time scale since the invasion of
Iraq. These kinds of cases tend not to be decided very quickly except
perhaps at the lowest judicial level. I could certainly see people
taking this as far as possible in the courts. What is the number of the
UN resolution are you referring to? The resolutions that insisted that
Iraq allow inspectors spoke only of serious consequences in a general
way, and avoided being specific.
(Of course, Canadian refugee laws may have also
changed in the past 30
years.)
That's another story with a far bigger scope than just Americans who
don't want to go to Iraq. Every time the government tries to simplify
the process it becomes more complicated. There is a lot of controversy
involved at many levels, including what to do with those who have
engaged in common criminal activities while waiting for their cases to
be decided, or what to do with otherwise well-behaved women from poor
countries who have had citizen children during their wait but have not
adequately met the criteria for refugees. Without prejudice to why they
come, Americans, who already speak English and a litigious tradition can
game the system very effectively for a long while.
Ec