Another deserter booted from Canada

A reader emailed me this story about another deserter that has been booted from our newest ally in the north;

A former Army sergeant who has been living in Canada as a war resister has been denied refugee status there.

Patrick Hart of Buffalo, N.Y., and his family must leave Canada by Oct. 30 or they will be deported.

The Canadian Border Services Agency also turned down a request by Hart and his wife to stay in Canada with their 6-year-old son on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Now he went AWOL in 2005. He was honorably discharged in 1995, he reenlisted in 2004 (a year after the Iraq War started). In a video interview, he admitted that he knew he’d end up in the war against terror, but his excuse for going AWOL had something to do with health insurance for his son. Something about pre-existing conditions and how Canada’s health care system is better than in the US. (shrug) It just sounds like a goofy, concocted story.

Especially when his wife tells the story about when he went AWOL while he was going to a concert in Baltimore and then called her and said he wasn’t coming home and hung up the phone and abandoned her. She whines about the Army treatment of her after he left her alone with their supposedly ill son (since he was on his way to a concert and not taking his wife and son, I’m sure it wasn’t the first time he’d abandoned them). Apparently the Army threatened to cut off his Tri-Care medical insurance, and that made her sad. But it wasn’t the Army that did it, it was her husband.

In the video, he also makes the statement to the soldiers still serving that “If you’re just following orders, you’re no better than the Nazis in Germany during the 40s.” He continues, “It’s your duty as a soldier to lay down your weapons as per the Nurenburg Trials.” (I’m just quoting him, don’t blame his mangled language on me)

Here’s a screen shot from the video in which he proudly displays his “AWOL” shirt;

I wonder how that T-shirt is going to play when he gets returned to Fort Campbell. He was better off when he was hoo-ah;

From his hometown paper;

“It would have been much easier to say, the hell with it and deploy to Iraq and just go through with it,” he said. “For anyone thinking I’ve taken the easy route, it’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination. But it is what it is, and I’ll stand by what I’ve done.”

So, in honor of our allies in the north sending our criminals back to their just desserts, stop by and drink beer at Dust My Broom.

Category: Politics