# Police arrest U.S. army deserter in Nelson



## GAP (4 Oct 2007)

Police arrest U.S. army deserter in Nelson
ROD MICKLEBURGH From Thursday's Globe and Mail October 4, 2007 at 12:44 AM EDT
Article Link

VANCOUVER — Russell Long, a pony-tailed, dreadlocks guy, was sitting in a park with some friends this week in beautiful downtown Nelson when the local constabulary came calling.

In short order, Mr. Long found himself arrested and bundled onto a flight to Vancouver in handcuffs, perilously close to becoming the first of the growing number of deserters from the U.S. army seeking refuge in Canada to be deported back to the United States. 

“I thought it was going to be very quick, that by Friday I would be back there to face criminal charges for desertion,” a relieved Mr. Long said yesterday, moments after a local supporter agreed to put up a $5,000 bond to secure his temporary release.

As it is, he is still furthest along of any deserter in Canada to being returned to the U.S., having lost all his court challenges to date, and with Canadian immigration officials preparing a pre-removal risk assessment of what awaits him south of the border.

“I'm the first to have that done,” said the 24-year-old Mr. Long, who sought refuge here in 2005 rather than go to Iraq. He now has a young child with his Canadian partner.

His detention on Monday follows the bizarre apprehension earlier this year of Kyle Snyder, another war resister staying in Nelson, who was taken off to jail in the middle of a winter's night, wearing just a toque, a robe and his boxers. 

Nelson police have refused to say on whose request they detained Mr. Snyder, or why they knocked on his door at 4 a.m. They released him three hours later, after learning that he was legally in Canada as a visitor.

Although more than a hundred U.S. army deserters are believed to be in Canada, only two have been arrested, both, coincidentally, in Nelson. 

CNN reporter Anderson Cooper recently labelled the idyllic, small Interior city “Resisterville” because of its reputation as a haven for those fleeing military duty with U.S. forces in Iraq.

Nelson police chief Dan Maluta, who has agreed to an outside investigation of why the boxer-clad Mr. Snyder was arrested, denied that local police were singling out war resisters, as the deserters call themselves.

He said a police officer approached Mr. Long and his friends on suspicion that they were smoking marijuana. A check disclosed that Mr. Long was wanted on an outstanding immigration warrant, and he was taken into custody. “This wasn't specific targeting. This was old-fashioned police work,” Chief Maluta told reporters.

B.C. Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko of the NDP happened to be on the same flight to Vancouver as the handcuffed deserter. He did not like what he saw.
More on link


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## 2 Cdo (4 Oct 2007)

Good on the local cops! Now let's get this oxygen thief back to face the music in the US! :threat:


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## mover1 (4 Oct 2007)

You know what bothers me most.  The NDP cabinet minister "did not like what he saw".


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## Big Foot (4 Oct 2007)

It's about time. If these guys have the guts to stand up for what they believe in and refuse to go to Iraq, they should have the guts to face the punishment associated with such actions. Instead, they act like a bunch of spineless cowards and run up to Canada, expecting to be treated like heros in this peace-loving nation of ours. Good on the police for finally showing this coward that that isn't how things work. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of this in the future.


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## medaid (4 Oct 2007)

I wonder if his hearing will be open to the public... because I wanna go... I want to see his face... the face of a criminal and a coward...


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## 54/102 CEF (4 Oct 2007)

Nelson BC - Resisterville? 

I don't think so - its the home base for this WW1 unit - www.54thbattalioncef.ca


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## Munxcub (4 Oct 2007)

Maybe in WW1... Now it's pretty much hippy/pot smoking central...


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## Stout (4 Oct 2007)

I can confirm that. I was in Nelson last year and it is basically a haven for pot smokers, hippies and activists who dont really do anything but sit around and bitch


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## 54/102 CEF (4 Oct 2007)

Try and buy a house there


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## ArmyRick (4 Oct 2007)

Send the bum home.


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## Roy Harding (4 Oct 2007)

I can confirm that the present town of Nelson is FULL of long haired, greasy, dope-smokin' refugee's from the Sixties.  My sister and her husband live there (don't get me going on my hippie brother-in-law).  Beautiful area - stuck in a time warp which causes their outlook to be stuck about 35 - 40 years in the past.

To be fair - I'm sure there are many fine folks who live there, but it's a fact that it has a high concentration of Vietnam era draft dodgers, and those who helped them.

I have SOME sympathy for Vietnam draft dodgers - there was a draft on, after all - but I STILL think they should have taken the route made famous by Cassius Clay - stand up for your convictions, pay the consequences.  However - for this present generation of deserters I have NO sympathy - they are all volunteers.  I just listened to an interview with one of these young fella's - when asked by the interviewer why he joined the US Army in the first place, we got the "I'm from a disadvantaged background" crap - he claims to be ready to fight for the US - just not in Iraq, which he claims is an illegal war.  Someone forgot to tell him that once you join, you don't GET to choose which war you fight in.  My bet is that he's willing to fight anywhere where they don't shoot back!

These idiots need to be returned to the US to face the music - which music they ordered up when they deserted.

The whole subject makes my blood boil.


Roy


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## mover1 (5 Oct 2007)

So a U.S. Army Deserter a Taliban Terrorist and Jack Layton are on a plane flying from Nelson B.C......anyone want to finish this joke?


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## Sig_Des (5 Oct 2007)

mover1 said:
			
		

> So a U.S. Army Deserter a Taliban Terrorist and Jack Layton are on a plane flying from Nelson B.C......anyone want to finish this joke?



The Taliban says..."I don't want to be on this plane....these two are a ticking timebomb"


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