Canada Gave Asylum To Vietnam War Defectors
POSTED: 6:27 pm PST February 3, 2005
UPDATED: 10:03 am PST February 4, 2005
During the 1960s and 70s some 50,000 Americans resisted the Vietnam War and
moved to Canada, rather than serve in a war they didn't believe in.
Canada didn't back the Vietnam War and gave asylum to those defectors.
Now, there's a new war that Canada doesn't support and history is starting
to repeat itself with soldiers starting to cross the boarder so they don't
have to go to Iraq.
Dan Felushka joined the Marines because he wanted to be trained by the best,
and he believed in the mission.
"We were training for war and we were trained to respond to 9/11," Felushka
said. "I was gung-ho for it. Totally into it, into the idea of responding to
an attack made against Americans that made sense."
Felushka was based out of Camp Pendleton. He says boot camp was one of the
best experiences of his life.
"I loved boot camp," he said. "It was hard. I learned to push myself hard. I
liked the training. I met cool guys who I got really close to really fast."
In July 2003, when Brandon Hughey was 17 years old, he was looking for a way
to pay for college when he started basic training.
He also liked boot camp, but felt cut off from the world and from
information about the war that he would soon be sent to fight in.
"When I got out of basic training, they had occupied the country for several
months," Hughey said. "They had found no links to al-Qaida. (Sadaam's)
military was weak and his weapons were all but nonexistent. We were
basically the aggressor attacking a country that practically couldn't
protect itself."
At Fort Hood, Hughey told his superiors he was having serious moral concerns
about going to war. He asked for a discharge.
"They said there was no way they would be willing to cooperate with me, so I
began to think that leaving the country was the only option," he said.
It didn't take long for Hughey to get a weekend leave. As soon as he did, he
headed north.
And in March of last year, he crossed the border at Niagra Falls and
traveled to Toronto, where he sought out immigration Attorney Jeffrey House.
Through the Internet, word is traveling fast that House is the man to go to
for U.S. soldiers thinking of defecting.
"I'm speaking to more and more and more U.S. soldiers," House said. "I've
spoken to three since noon today for example, and it's about 4 o'clock."
House says more than 150 soldiers have contacted him about moving to Canada.
He says he can talk to them, not only as an attorney, but as someone with
experience.
He resisted the Vietnam War and moved to Toronto in 1970. He says the
similarities between then and now are striking.
"The most common thing I hear about the war in Iraq is that 'It's bogus,'"
House said. "...It's pretty similar to the reasons we were told then -- we
had to give up our lives, so why should we have to?"
It's similar to how Hughey feels.
"I'm not going to give the ultimate sacrifice or shoot at somebody else or
cause grief in their family for the rest if their lives for a cause my
government can't even justify," he said. "For me, personally, I couldn't
deal with that."
Felushka ultimately left his Southern California Marine troop for similar
reasons.
"I wasn't prepared to be put in that situation by the government, having to
participate in acts of violence against people without just cause," he said.
"They just flat out weren't able to convince me it was justified."
Felushka says leaving was one of the most important decisions of his life.
"The only inalienable right that I have as a human being, regardless of your
country of birth, is my right to choose between right and wrong," he said.
"It leaves me here with my conscience intact to deal with the rest of my
life."
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