Thursday, July 17, 2008

Canadian Deserter Legal Update

The NYT story on the status of US deserters in Canada, reported by CAAFlog here, will need to change one fact. As of Tuesday, July 15, 2008, at least one US military desrter has been deported. Robin Long, who reportedly deserted in 2005, was ordered deported earlier this week, see Canadian press report here. Apparently the Canadian court ruled that (by way of CTV.ca)
Long did not provide enough convincing evidence that he will face irreparable harm if he's sent back to the United States. [] She noted that the percentage of American military deserters prosecuted in the U.S. has increased since 2002. However, she said the vast majority were not prosecuted, let alone jailed for desertion.

Under the court's ruling, if more than 50% of US deserters were being court-martialed than Long could have stayed in Canada, eh? What if Long's particular command was BCD Special happy for deserters? Oh well, guess he should have thought about that before he fled to a country with a Conservative government. One comment on the NYT article, I had to laugh when I read this quote:
As for Mr. Glass [NOTE: he's the deserter in the NYT story], he said he was between low-paying factory jobs in Indiana when he joined the National Guard six years ago. [] But he said he had one crucial question for the recruiters before he signed. “They told me I’m not going to fight a war on foreign shores,” Mr. Glass said. [] Maj. Nathan Banks, a spokesman for the Army, said, “recruiters would never have made a comment of that sort.”

3 comments:

Christopher Mathews said...

She noted that the percentage of American military deserters prosecuted in the U.S. has increased since 2002. However, she said the vast majority were not prosecuted, let alone jailed for desertion.

Really? I would be very surprised if this is true.

Anyone happen to know the NJP/admin action rate versus courts-martial for Article 85 allegations?

Anonymous said...

I don't know about the NJP rate. Of course, I was interested to see that the US government has upheld the honor of its recruiters who would never tell lies to enlist a soldier.

Anonymous said...

Guess he wasn't going to Quantico where the Marines send almost all of their deserters for a court-martial and time in the brig.