let them stay: two canadians speak out in the toronto star

From the Toronto Star:
I am ashamed to be a Canadian. I have been involved with the campaign to keep Kim Rivera in Canada for some time. It is obvious that most Canadians think that as a conscientious objector to the war in Iraq she should stay here rather than face court martial and jail separate from her family.

When I opened my Star on Thursday I saw another story of a deportation on the same page as Rivera's story. Fatemeh Derakhshandeh Tosarvandan is to be sent back to Iran, where she could face stoning as a result of an accusation of adultery.

What kind of a country has Canada become?

Elizabeth (Beth) Guthrie
Toronto

*

When the Iraq war was just getting underway, a person in the United States asked me if conscientious objectors would be allowed to stay in Canada as had been the case during the Vietnam War.

It never occurred to me that a policy that had been practised to the benefit of both Canada and the U.S. since at least 1850 would not be followed now and I assured him they would be welcome.

Ontario was founded to a great extent by conscientious objectors we call United Empire Loyalists. If Jason Kenney is anxious to honour Canadian history, now would be a good time to start, with Kim Rivera and others like her, loyal to the common standards of humanity.

Allen R. Wells, Sarnia

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