Sheehan urges Harper to pull out of Afghanistan
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch posted 1:20 p.m. May 4, 2006]

OTTAWA  — The most prominent anti-war protestor in America was on Parliament Hill Thursday and called on Canada to end its military involvement in Afghanistan.  
 
Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey Sheehan died in combat in Iraq in 2004, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper should stop helping U.S. President George W. Bush in the war on terror.

"I want (Harper) to stop supporting my government's war crimes and crimes against humanity," said Sheehan at a press conference. 

"I don't think Canadian troops should be there for one reason: Canadian troops being in Afghanistan is helping my government's occupation of Iraq," 

"It's freeing up more soldiers to be in Iraq."

Sheehan is one of the founding members of Gold Star Families for Peace, which is opposed to the war in Iraq. 

She gained international fame last summer when she camped outside of Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch to demand a meeting with him. 

Since then she has continued anti-war activities, traveling the U.S., Europe and South America. She was rumoured to be considering running in the Democratic Senate primary in California. 

In January of this year, Sheehan was arrested inside the U.S. Capitol minutes before Bush was to deliver the State of the Union Address because she was wearing a t-shirt with a provocative anti-war message. 

Sheehan was in Ottawa as part of a visit to Canada in which she is assisting the War Resisters Support Campaign and the Council of Canadians in asking the government to grant full asylum to U.S. soldiers who desert the army to avoid serving in Iraq. 

Michelle Robidoux, an organizer with War Resisters Support Campaign, estimated at the press conference that there are hundreds of U.S. army deserters currently living in Canada.

So far only 20 of those have applied for refugee status. Two of them -- Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey -- have had their refugee claims rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board and are appealing the rulings. 

Victoria Gibb-Carsley of the Council of Canadians said at the press conference that Canada should be consistent with its opposition to the war in Iraq by accepting military deserters. 

Canada offered sanctuary to over 50,000 draft dodgers during the Vietnam war. However, very few of those individuals were people who volunteered to  join the army and then deserted, as is the case now. 

Despite this difference, Sheehan said those who desert the U.S. army to avoid service in Iraq are "legitimate refugees."

"They're refusing to go over to a country to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. The only choice they have is prison," she said.

"My position is if it's an all-volunteer military they should be allowed to unvolunteer."

Sheehan also weighed in on the recent decision by the Conservative government not to lower the flag at half-mast on Parliament Hill to honour Canadian solders killed in Afghanistan and to bar reporters from covering the repatriation of dead soldiers at Canadian military bases. 

"I just believe that it's a propaganda tactic to take the cost of the war away from the public so the public doesn't know what's going on so the public won't rise up," she said.

"There's not an awareness that in Canada that your country is in combat (in Afghanistan). It's not doing peacekeeping, that it is in combat. And that's exactly what the people in government want. They want to keep this awareness away from the public."

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