US Iraq War Resister Kimberly Rivera Granted Emergency Stay of Removal

Ed Note: This e-mail was forwarded to me for posting by Jan Ruhman, our VetSpeak.org Operations Coordinator, Vietnam Veterans Against The War SoCal Organizing Coordinator, and VP of Veterans For Peace, San Diego. He is actively involved with the G.I. Rights movement there in SoCal. He is a regular visitor with Robin Long, and has submitted several reports on Robin's case to VetSpeak's pages during Robin's incarceration at the Miramar, MCAS, Brig, in San Diego. This related case of Kimberly Rivera's is a healthy sign of the political power of a growing a G.I. Rights movement that is now challenging and impacting the deportation laws of Canada, and the long arm of the Pentagon. Never give up... Never surrender...WH

From: "An Angel"
Subject: US Iraq War Resister Kimberly Rivera granted emergency stay of removal (from Canada)
To: "vetlist"
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009, 6:28 AM

I just checked the Canadian’s war resister website. There’s not much info yet but good news for now for the Rivera family.
http://resisters.ca/index_en.html

Canucks – Gotta love em. You can help by phoning or emailing the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper and the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney. Click here -> http://www.resisters.ca/actions.html

Kimberly Rivera received word late on March 25th that the Federal Court granted her a stay pending a decision on whether or not they will review a decision by Immigration officials rejecting her Pre-Removal Risk Assessment.

The decision means that Kimberly, her husband Mario and their three children will not be facing a deportation on March 26th. It is a very important decision that recognizes that US war resisters who speak publicly against the war in Iraq face differential treatment by the US military.

It is urgent that Canadians send a very strong message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Jason Kenney to say that this family and other Iraq war resisters must be allowed to stay. It is the will of Canadians and the will of our Parliament that we welcome war resisters into our country. The Conservative government must respect this view and implement the motion passed by Parliament in June 2008 calling for an end to all removal proceedings against US war resisters and for them to be allowed to apply for permanent resident status in Canada .

Imagine Peace,
Colleen

www.VetSpeak.org