Unwelcome deserter

last updated 8 January 2015

Toronto

Canadian immigration officials denied asylum to a U.S. soldier who refused to fight in Iraq. Jeremy Hinzman, 26, said he was “unwilling to kill babies,” although he would have been happy to serve in a noncombat role. Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board said Hinzman was not a true conscientious objector, because he would have refused to serve in any capacity if he really believed the war was “unjust” and “illegal.” Hinzman’s lawyer said as many as a hundred American soldiers had fled to Canada since the war began, in 2003, although Hinzman was the first to request asylum. If returned to the U.S., he could face five years in prison for desertion.