Canada deports U.S. Army deserter back to States

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A U.S. Army deserter who fled to Canada three years ago was deported Tuesday to America, marking the first time a resister to the U.S war effort in Iraq has been removed by Canadian authorities.

Paula Shore, spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, confirmed that Robin Long, 25, was deported.

Thomas Schreiber, the chief of U.S. border protection in Blaine, Wash., said Long had been sent to his border crossing rather than the main crossing at the Pacific Highway to avoid a demonstration against the Canadian removal order. Schreiber said that immediately after Long had been handed over, he was arrested, adding that he would probably be taken to Fort Lewis, Wash., on Tuesday night.

Maj. Nathan Banks, a spokesman for the U.S. Army, said Long would eventually be returned to Fort Knox, Ky., his home base, for disciplinary procedures.

Banks declined to say what punishment Long faced, but lawyers for deserters in Canada said it could include prison and the equivalent of a felony conviction.

Long, who is 25, joined the Army in 2003 to become a tank commander and fled to Canada with his partner and two children in 2005.

He was arrested twice on charges of immigration violations in Canada, including not notifying the government that he had moved from a remote part of Ontario to Nelson, B.C.

He sought refuge in Canada on the grounds that the U.S. Army wanted him to participate in what he called an "illegal war of aggression in Iraq."

Justice Anne Mactavish of the Federal Court of Canada ruled Monday that Long couldn't provide clear evidence he would suffer irreparable harm if he was returned to the United States.

In her ruling, Mactavish said that although the percentage of American military deserters prosecuted for desertion has increased since 2002, the vast majority have not been prosecuted or faced jail time.

Last week, the Federal Court blocked the deportation of National Guard Sgt. Corey Glass, 25, while it decides whether to hear his case. Glass refused redeployment to Iraq.

Long and Glass were among some 200 American deserters believed to have come to Canada trying to avoid service in Iraq. So far, Canadian immigration officials and the courts have rejected efforts to grant them refugee status.

Most of the Americans who won refuge in Canada to avoid the military draft during the Vietnam War went home after the United States granted amnesty in the late 1970s.

The Canadian government's effort to remove Glass contrasts with the warm reception given to deserters and draft avoiders from the U.S. during the war in Vietnam.

During the Vietnam War, the Liberal prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, welcomed American deserters and draft dodgers and declared that Canada "should be a refuge from militarism." Americans who arrived were generally able to obtain legal immigrant status simply by applying at the border, or even after they entered Canada.