Canada denies asylum to U.S. deserter

TORONTO – Canada’s Refugee Hearing board Thursday rejected a bid for asylum by a U.S. Army deserter who refused to go to war in Iraq, raising legal roadblocks to the growing trickle of American servicemen fleeing to Canada.

The board ruled that Jeremy Hinzman, 26, could not argue that he would be unfairly persecuted in the United States for refusing to serve in what he said was an illegal war.

Hinzman, a parachute-trained specialist raised in Rapid City, S.D., served in Afghanistan but fled from Fort Bragg, N.C., and entered Canada in January 2004 after his unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, was given orders to deploy to Iraq.

“Our hands were tied by not being able to argue the legality of the war,” Hinzman told demonstrators, including two other American deserters, who gathered outside the U.S. consulate after the decision.

His attorney, Jeffry House, said nine other servicemen had started the asylum application process in Canada, and he estimated “about 100” were in hiding in the country.

“Obviously we are disappointed,” House said. “We certainly are not giving up. We believe the decision is wrong, and we will appeal it.”

House said Thursday’s decision didn’t “make those cases unwinnable.”

Hinzman claimed he would be persecuted for following his conscience. But the board noted that the United States remains a democracy and that Hinzman would be given “full protection of a fair and independent … judicial process” if he returned to face trial.

Hinzman initially applied for non-combat, conscientious objector status in the Army, but was denied. The Refugee Hearing Board said “Mr. Hinzman was no doubt guided by his moral code” in refusing to serve, but that he failed the test of a refugee fleeing persecution. The board found that his likely punishment in the United States was “not excessive or disproportionately severe.”