Crossing Into Canada

Crossing Into Canada editor Alison Mountz, a Univerity of Toronto geography professor, includes Vietnam but adds another dimension to the resister story by also exploring the experiences of men and women who avoided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the help of the War Resisters Support Campaign and other early Vietnam-resister aid groups, deserters and soldiers who went AWL record their stories here.

In one of Mountz’s 13 oral histories, Brooklyn-born Leah describes becoming a Canadian resident in B.C. Her husband eventually chose a different path. When resisters were given amnesty by the U.S. government, he returned to the States from B.C., ending their marriage. “This is where I live,” says Leah. “This is where I identify.… This is where all my roots are now.… I’m Canadian.”

Both books provide historical background, with Mountz using resisters’ memories of the horrors of boot camp and seeing combat action, and in Martin’s case, with chapters on the media, politics, the draft, the Canadian immigration system and the Vietnam War protest movement.

All the stories describe harrowing journeys that eventually bring resisters to Canada and tentative new lives. Mountz provides a map that traces each journey, which often crosses continents in a back-and-forth panic to find refuge. Martin gives readers a fact sheet, revealing the cost of the Vietnam War (about $140 billion) and the loss of almost 60,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese.

“America’s loss was Canada’s gain,” Martin concludes compassionately. “The war resisters form a unique subsection of Canadian society.” Mountz suggests that new waves of war resisters “seeking safety will once again look north” as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens global conflict. The children of the 1960s chanted, “Hell, no, we won’t go.” The children of the 2000s may again need our help as we anticipate hearing that same chant again.