INFLUX '67°

How Canadians aid young Americans
who oppose the Vietnam war

+ THER:
ee a a new committee about
7 tatig te enized in Windsor, On-
Be tuncti Will call itself “Info 67.”
: oe the committee will be
mye aneticans to emigrate
Americar ay to avoid serving
a. This ae armed forces in Viet-
hed, will Mittee, once it is estab-
Gn Operate like similar com-
Baadian 314 Individuals in several
is a a from coast to coast.
Uglag “A the Tribune talked with
a aoe Spokesman for the
a ‘ American War Ob-
q ‘Year-old. Columbia. Sanders
Rem active | lawyer and he has
; 2 4 an 'S work for the past
P* interviay, Owing is a report of

Whe
ft &
Start thea motivated you
'S Committee? —
: I didn’t start it.
mea Society of Friends
DS up ie ape of
own the west
ae oe that individual
: aes not qualify as
ie pitors were getting in.
MNEction wit Own, because
© questi ith the Friends, and
Yed in tiie about what was
ian w8ration to Canada and
© dra bat iBration had to say
I in 28 in res atus of immigrants.
iy tities 4,b0RS to these individu-
Dy St Whar ttt Was forced to find

1h Scientioy
\ ch With
wy CO)

af, Purr 5 committee simply for
A, Which ha distributing informa-
i il in eS en Our primary work.
% us it had almost been
hei ° x wh Penne Aiperican to
HRI y Ign a
"Ty Bratin; About a draft Tee

W
. ma
antitteg te People has your
da? Ped to establish in
hy, is
| We $ ra

ive Feuer hard to say because
Des Uhave ., People as they come
fog I dont ouselled over 80 peo-
if butt the © the main counselling

& 4 Committee. We have no

Nee last f Many we have seen.
t io We have had about
cy all over the United
ie Bettina.

seq dodgers” the proportion of

Yeo it’s re eas come over that
lh aa 9 a ly impossible to make

ectent yy ®stimate. The federal

en 1,500 S Made an estimate of
e 00 as the number
the country. The
eel that there is

t 4
tee Serv
ae Provides: does your com-

a]
1 ereg ae of young people who
lay fae Bet s Visitors and who seek
Mice PtOceeg Ne advice on the best
Ong ,, Our “© give them thi
ion reat re aphilet lists all the Ace.
g Ona) Ths, . Out on the immigra-
item. SKBtoung cuss their educa-
rp kyo y's, all ie and financial re-
i Fo cay Spout abe: details they need
US Wop al function is that

a dr 4 Speci
aft Status Cific questions about

What has been the attitude of
the Canadian government, have
they helped, hindered or stayed
neutral?

When we started there wasn’t a
clearly enunciated policy. But now a
number of cabinet ministers, Paul Mar-
tin, Jean Marchand, Judy La Marsh,
Prime Minister Pearson, have all made

- statements at one time or another that

Canada was not going to enforce the
draft laws of another country. Govern-
ment policy is now very well estab-
lished. The draft eligibility of an im-
migrant is not going.to be considered
a relevant factor by the Canadian gov-
‘ernment. Mr. Diefenbaker has taken a
contrary stand in that he feels these
people should be excluded.

What about the Royal Cana-
dian Mounted Police?
I know personally of two draft-dodg-

ers who have been questioned in Van- -

couver, and have heard of a couple
of others in Toronto. The number is
extremely small compared to the num-
ber of Americans who have come to
Canada. The RCMP made an official
statement when Tom Hathaway, a
young American, had a warrant issued
for his arrest in Boston. The RCMP
stated that in a case of this kind they
would attempt to locate the person to
discover whether he had legal status
in Canada. If his status here was legal
there was nothing they would do. If
people have a legal status in Canada
they cannot be deported or extradited,

Is your work on this commit-
tee motivated more by concern
with the war itself or with the
plight of American young people
being forced into the army?

These young Americans are also vic-
tims of the war. The American govern-
ment is pursuing a policy which many
Americans feel is immoral and brutal.
The young Americans who feel strong-
ly opposed to what their government
is doing in Vietnam are placed in a
real moral dilemma. My involvment at
the beginning was as a result of many
Americans who were in this moral di-
lemma, coming to me looking for a
positive alternative course of action.

The issue in my mind can be segre-
gated completely from the war in Viet-
nam. You have really the problem of
moral authority. The major Christian
tradition on war is that there are just
and unjust wars. The purport of the
Nuremburg Tribunal and the second
Vatican council is that the moral re-
quirement of judging the justice of the
war rests with the individual. So you
have people following the mainstream
Western Christian traditions conclud-
ing that this is an unjust war.

How do Canadians react to
your work and fo the American
draft-dodgers?

Many groups have given their sup-
port for this work. Generally the res-
ponse has been very good. The people
involved have not been harrassed by
critical letters or phone calls, or any-
thing like that.

The climate of public opinion in
Canada has accepted what they are
doing. There was a Case of a young
draft dodger at the Simon Fraser Uni-
versity in Burnaby, B.C., who had -a
stranger come up to him and hand
him $100, saying “You need this more

than I.” There have been many other
instances of this kind.

Do you help these people find
jobs in Canada?

We have made inquiries of this na-
ture, but it is something we can’t do
well. These people receive legal status
when they come up here and can use
the services of the National Employ-
ment Service. They are young people,
in good health, many of them highly
trained and skilled.

Do you have any opinion on

the argument that young Ameri-

cans who oppose the war should — .

stay in the U.S..and face prison
to dramatize their protest rather
than emigrate? __

This is a dilemma that faces the per-
-son if he opposes the war. He has a
limited set of alternatives. He can
swallow his conscience and fight. He
can stay and go to jail; this would
probably be for five years with no
time off for good. behaviour. The other
alternative is to emigrate.

I have met many people who are
very troubled about this, who feel that
maybe they should stay and go to jail,
but it seems to me that going to jail
has proven to be an ineffective form
of protest in the U.S. because many

.

young people have gone to jail and
many have made heroic, dramatic

stands, formal statements before the

courts as to their beliefs—but the pub-
licity has been minimal.

For many it is really a much more
positive step to come to Canada and
it seems to me to be very disquieting
for Americans to realize that young
Americans are so dissatisfied, so frus-
trated by the situation in the U.S., and
so critical, that they decide to leave
their country with no expectation of
ever returning. This to me is a strong
form of protest.

But if an American came to me and
asked me what he should do I would
not tell him he should come to Cana-
da. This is a question he has to resolve
for himself. Our role is to provide in-
formation on this alternative but not
to tell people that they should take
this alternative.

What about the charge that
you are interfering in the internal
affairs of another country?

I don’t believe this is the case. Indi-
vidual Americans are making the deci-
sion to leave the U.S. This is a sad re-
flection on life in the U.S. Ours is a
distinctively Canadian role; we are
working within the Canadian setting.
We. are responding to refugees from
another country. This is in line with

’ Canada’s traditional attitudes toward

the accepting of immigrants. The Uni-
ted Empire Loyalists left the U.S. be-
cause they disagreed with the govern-
ment in power at the time; no one
ever cast reflections on them. Canada
willingly accepted the Mennonites from
the Ukraine in the 1890's, although
they were leaving as a direct result
of being forced into a kind of military
service; no question was ever raised
about them. We have a long tradition
of this type of thing, as does the Uni-
ted States.

I talked to his.
I said *Let the
GOVERNMENT worry

about MORALITY! %
All YOU have to RESPONSIBILITY!
do is burn the All YOU have
villages?" to do te drop
But he wouldn't dowd:
Listen, He'd But it was,
just start no use. He
yelling about chy pats
HITLER. hoary
WARSAW.
Our minister tal! So the day his
to his. He said draft a
*Let the oe tor
GOVERNMENT SiHADAT
worry about
HUMAN DIGNITY!
- All YOU have
to do is
MAPALK the
women and
ehildren!*
But it hed
no effect.
He'd just
etart yelling
about the
NUREMBERG
TATIALS.

ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM

or

4 didn't raise my boy to be a Canadian’

rry about
MATIONAL GUILT!
411 YOU have
to do is
gun dom
the silly

attention,
He'd just -
start
yelling
about

I didn't
reise
ay boy

to be &
Canadian!

50¢

This pamphlet published by the Student Union for Peace Action, one of the
groups helping American young people emigrate to Canada to avoid the draft, de-
tails the qualifications and steps necessary for Americans to become legal residents

of Canada.

April 7, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3