In comments here, my blog-friend Impudent Strumpet asked if this motion came to late to help Corey Glass, the first U.S. war resister to receive a deportation order.
The motion before Parliament calls for the Government to immediately cease all deportation proceedings against all war resisters.
So if the motion passes, and the government honours it, it will include Corey.
But even if the Government won't overtly agree to honour the motion - the will of the majority of Canadians - will they actually have Corey taken away, and risk such negative publicity, at a time when they can scarcely afford any more?
They may just let the deportation order sit for a while, without acting on it, while they think of a way to save face.
Many people don't realize that this issue was a political battle during the Vietnam era, too. Just like today, activists worked for years to try to convince the government to let the draft resisters and deserters remain in Canada. It took a deportation order to galvanize the movement. There was such a public outcry - there was such outrage - that the government finally acted. The resister was not deported, and Pierre Trudeau declared Canada "a refuge from militarism".
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A note on comments. After four years of blogging, I'm finally forced to use comment moderation. It seems the recent run of trolls is not a run at all, but one person with too much time and too little medication. I'd much prefer you all to be able to discuss and debate when I'm not around, but it's too much work to delete all his/her bile. Between us, Allan and I can usually get comments through pretty quickly. So comment moderation will remain in use, at least until the troll's mother takes away his computer privileges. Thanks for your understanding.
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