Morrison wrote that deserters should not be allowed entry to Canada as they had already demonstrated a willingness to flout “moral or contractual obligations.” Vancouver mayor Tom Campbell called them elements of a “scum community” who “won’t even fight for their own country.” In 1966, Canadian director of immigration J.C. Photo by Lyle Stafford/For National PostĪ 1968 poll cited by Boyko found that 58 per cent of Canadians said draft evaders should be barred from the country. commemorating Vietnam-era draft evaders and deserters who came to Canada. ![]() Isaac Romano, director of the Our Way Home Peace Event and Reunion, speaks at the 2006 unveiling of a statue in Nelson, B.C. While the influx is often remembered with some measure of national pride, most Canadians at the time were not at all happy with the American newcomers. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Notable among them was singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester as well as the husband of Margaret Atwood, whose draft eligibility prompted the couple’s move to Toronto. optimism for success was at its peak, Martin told the Cabinet that “the United States has now embarked on a hopeless course since the Vietnamese people had no will to fight and there were no prospects for a strong civilian leadership.”Ĭanadians were not as welcoming to American draft evaders as we might rememberĪbout 26,000 American men moved to Canada in the 1960s in order to avoid service in the Vietnam War. ignored that warning, as well as many others, but Seaborn’s experience appears to have deeply affected his higher-ups in Ottawa, including Secretary of State for External Affairs Paul Martin, father of the later prime minister. ![]() Article content A 1965 issue of Maclean’s magazine profiling Blair Seaborn’s diplomatic role in Vietnam. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
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