A Separate Peace

[July 23rd, 2008] Last week, Canada deported a U.S. Army deserter who was seeking asylum, shocking U.S. activists who have long considered Canada a safe haven for AWOL soldiers.

In fitting Portland tradition, a coalition of activists called PDX Peace has a response.

They’re gathering signatures to make Portland America’s third “Sanctuary City” for military deserters, along with San Francisco and Berkeley. And they want the City Council to adopt an ordinance that would protect war resisters by blocking Portland police from acting on federal orders to arrest AWOL soldiers.

“It’s even more urgent now that Canada has begun deporting people,” says Dan Shea, a member of the Portland coalition and a local organizer for Veterans for Peace.

If adopted, the ordinance would be largely symbolic. Shea knows of no deserters in town. But he and fellow organizers hope to introduce the idea to City Council soon so commissioners could pass an ordinance by year’s end.

California-based Courage to Resist estimates 15,000 servicemen and -women are AWOL today, but doesn’t break that number out by service.

Though it’s unclear if Portland has AWOL soldiers, it is clear that police have helped the military in Oregon. Two years ago, Eugene police arrested Spc. Suzanne Swift, 24.

She had gone AWOL because she faced redeployment to Iraq under the command of a sergeant whom she’d accused of sexual harassment. Swift was court-martialed in 2006 and sentenced to 30 days in prison. She is still serving in the Army but was not redeployed to Iraq.

“We need to protect these people who don’t want to fight,” says Swift’s mom, Sara Rich. “This is an illegal, immoral occupation.”