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Joshua Key who spoke recently at a
war resisters' support gathering in Saskatoon appeared before a Canadian Federal
Court in Toronto to appeal his asylum denial. If Joshua loses this appeal,
he may be faced with deportation to the United States where he faces harsh consequences
for deserting the U.S. Military.
Joshua's book "A Deserter's
Tale" is now available in paperback. You can
read details here - http://www.anansi.ca/titles.cfm?pub_id=1150.
Canadian Press Article:
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmSAFxcaYDNSnCj_yySDad_7bRWg
No legal way to object to Iraq war in U.S., deserter's lawyer tells court
Apr
2, 2008
TORONTO - Even though the United States is a democracy, an American army
deserter had no legal way to object
to his country's war against Iraq and no
guarantees he would be treated
fairly for refusing to fight, Federal Court
heard Wednesday.
Joshua Key, 29, is hoping the court
will order Canada's Immigration and
Refugee Board to reconsider its
denial of his asylum claim. The board
essentially decided in November 2006
that while Key may have been ordered to
violate the Geneva Conventions which
govern armed conflict, he wasn't
implicated in war crimes.
On Wednesday, lawyer Jeffry House
told Justice Robert Barnes the board was
wrong to conclude that the U.S. allows soldiers to object legally
to what
their military is doing in Iraq.
In fact, House said, the United
States Supreme Court has held that going to
war is a high-level policy decision
that cannot be litigated.
"There is no possibility
whatsoever in the U.S. that anyone can raise the
issue of an illegal war," House
told Justice Robert Barnes.
House also maintained the board was
wrong to exclude evidence about the
international legitimacy of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"If the war is illegal, every
act of violence is unjustified," House said.
Key served as a combat engineer for
eight months in Iraq 2003, where he says
he was involved in, or witnessed
soldiers, committing savage acts against
civilians.
"You're terrorizing the
civilian population - for what sense or for what
reason, I don't know," Key said
in an interview outside court. "The innocent
killings of civilians happened on a
systematic basis there. It wasn't every
now and then, it was an everyday
occasion."
While on leave in November 2003, the
deeply troubled Oklahoman father of
four decided he could not return to Iraq and deserted.
Crown lawyer Marianne Zoric
countered that Key should have argued his case
in the United States, a position the Federal Court of
Appeal has taken with
other American deserters, she noted.
However, "all he did" was
make an anonymous call to a military lawyer, who
said his options were to go back to Iraq or go to jail, Zoric said.
A skeptical Barnes wondered aloud
how Key could have "made a run for the
border" had he ended up, as the
refugee board concluded was likely, behind
bars.
Zoric also backed the board's view
that although Key was forced to violate
the Geneva Conventions in Iraq, he wasn't implicated in war crimes
and
didn't have to worry about legal
reprisals.
House said that argument made no
sense.
"Acts contrary to the Geneva
Conventions are themselves illegitimate. It
should not have to be a war crime
before you can object and be protected
(from prosecution)."
In the interim, Key is living in
northern Saskatchewan - he prefers not to
say where - and hopes either the
Canadian courts or its politicians will be
sympathetic to his plight.
Living in immigration limbo is hard,
he said, but returning to the U.S.
would be worse.
"I go back to the United States and go to prison for an
undetermined amount
of time and I would say my wife and
children would have great hardships," he
said.
"I get many death threats. I
don't want to be one of the ones hanged in town
square. I doubt that would happen,
but still there would be a lot of
hostility."
Barns said he hoped to rule before
August.
Please consider taking a little time
to view the war resisters films on
youtube. Joshua Key is featured prominently in each of
the segments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GspXlnF2Qeg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJ0AoK7UZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N5rV5bmqS0
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