The opponents of the American Vietnam War who fled to Canada in the past and future are considering

Jimmy Carter’s presidential amnesty was a comprehensive invitation to thousands of Americans to return home and help heal a nation that was tears in the Vietnam War. Those who left for Canada to avoid the draft did not want any part of the conflict, which killed about 60,000 Americans.

Canada had offered a shelter. The war was not supported and was ready to welcome, with a few questions, those who cross the border.

Many of the war articles, or the draft evading as they were often called, were not interested in returning when Mr. Carter presented his offer to pardon. Their decisions came at high costs: rupture of family relationships, broken friendships, often shame. While some of those who went to Canada praised a principle, others considered them a coward.

Now, the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war reaches another turbulent moment.

For Americans living in Canada, President Trump’s economic attacks and Canadian sovereignty threats again sparked unstable feelings about the United States.

I traveled all over Canada and spoke to nearly ten people who left America, and now most in the 1970s or eighties, who confirmed their decisions to leave and their feelings about both countries. This is what they said.

optimist

Richard Lim Canada saw a legendary land of beautiful horizons and a peaceful government.

He applied to obtain a pronouncing position in the United States, which was intended for people who rejected military service because they were incompatible with their religious or moral beliefs, among other reasons. It was rejected, and fled north in 1968.

“He was the main motive to leave politically and morally,” said Mr. Lim, the professor, writer and poet at Charlotte Town, Prince Edward Island.

Today, when he looks at the United States, he sees a deeply accused society. “People do not listen to each other enough and really, they really need this,” he said.

The peace activity in the 1960s had a great promise to Rex Weyler, an ecosystem and an ecosystem born in Colorado.

But things changed when the FBI came after he ignored multiple draft notifications. Mr. Wheeler fled to Canada in 1972 and now lives on the island of Cortis, British Columbia. He went to become the founder of Greenpeace, the environmental group.

He said that in the past few months, many people in the United States have asked his ideas about coming to Canada. In this case, he said he does not think that departure is the correct answer.

“You cannot really escape the political opinions that you don’t like,” said Mr. Wheeler.

Family

Don Gaiton spent two years working in the Peace Corps between the poor farmers in Colombia. When he returned to the United States in 1968, a draft notice waited for him.

“My country has sent me to help farmers in Colombia,” said Mr. Jayton. “Now they want me to kill them in Vietnam.”

Mr. Jayton and his wife, Judy Harris, mobilized their property and two children and went to British Columbia in 1974.

The departure of the couple led to a ten -year crack with Mr. Jayton’s father, who was angry at his son turning his back on his military duty.

Mr. Jayton said: “We were proud of that, and that we stood on our land.” “The horrific part is that people will go to their grave do not forgive the warmers of the war.”

Searching for an original life

She was born in Los Angeles to a family of fishermen, and Susan Molki was a vegetarian.

At the age of twenty, she took a bus to British Columbia because she opposed the war and wanted to follow a more environmental lifestyle.

She now lives and works in the forests of society in Casslu, British Columbia, but has been involved in American political activity, which helped expatriates vote in the United States elections.

She said, “Canada facilitates my ability to live a real life.”

the environment

In 1969, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Prime Minister in Canada, announced that the project of the situation of American youth who move to Canada was not related to their presence legally.

This was one of the reasons that prompted John Berginsky to British Columbia in 1970 after the United States gave him a conscience.

“I left because I fell in love with this scene.” “The policy was secondary.”

Focus on environmental work and the CEO has long been in Wildsight, a non -profit protected organization.

“If you are going to leave your country of origin, you should be sure that where you will go to a place you really love,” said Mr. Berginsky.

Three generations of the Ed Washington family served in the American army. They were black and considered the army more hostile than the civil world.

“My grandfather felt that he was the least racist place for him,” said Mr. Washington, a lawyer for legal assistance in Callary, Alberta.

His mother, Kwaker, sent Mr. Washington to a Cuker internal school in British Columbia. When he returned to the United States to join the university, he applied for a conscience exhausted position due to his porous beliefs and teaching at the Koker School in California, where Jerry Garcia met and became immersed in the rock and roll culture culture.

But Mr. Washington said he was tired of drug use in his circles and returned to British Columbia in 1974.

He didn’t spend much time in the past. He said: “I thought he would interfere with me, I will live my life today.”

As a university student in Washington State, the Brian Conrad Policy project allowed to postpone his military service as long as he was registered in the school.

After completing his studies, he is bound by Latin America in 1972, in the end of the marriage of his dual nationality to move to British Colombia, where he spent 30 years as a high school teacher and an environmental activist.

Mr. Conrad thought of returning to the United States, but two things keep him far: Canada’s narrow control of firearms and general health care system.

However, he said: “I don’t want to draw one with flowers and the other with thorns. We have our challenges and problems.”

Peaceful

Ellen Bert grew up in the Koker family in Eugene, raw, which was formed by a culture that opposes many American policies, even before the Vietnam War.

On nineteen, Mrs. Bert decided that she wanted to live in the wilderness. She traveled to British Colombia, where she had links with the Cukeers who lived there.

Her family started during agriculture, progress in care, and hold seasonal jobs.

She never thought of returning to the United States because its relatives were supporting its movement. However, she said today that she feels that Canada does not have the same reputation for being a haven.

She said: “This right -wing acquisition of governments is happening all over the world.”

The mountains were calling

Canada felt a giant backyard of more than a separate country of Bian Batton. The border was a car short drive from his job in Montana as a garden guard.

After a woman with a border was taken to a hospital in Alberta one night in 1967, he decided that he wanted to live in Rocky Canadians.

He ignored a draft of a notification in the mail, went to become a Canadian citizen and wrote a long -distance walking guide, “The Canadian Rocks Path Directory”.

He said that the mountains were the Patton Reserve: “The mind was just a step across the border.”

Politician

When the draft of his notification reached, Corky Evans grabbed the bases and took a physical examination of the army. bitter.

Mr. Evans tried to obtain a conscience exhausted position, but his Christian minister refused to write a support letter.

He married a woman with children of a former marriage and moved to Canada.

He has become a worker in children’s care on Vancouver Island and his support for strange jobs before running for a regional office, which led to a long profession in British Colombian policy.

Mr. Evans said: “Allow Canada to build a life here.”

father

Bob Hug was serving in the army and stationed in Prisheidi in San Francisco, at the time an army base, where he unloaded the bodies of the body of the American soldiers who died in Vietnam.

He was afraid of the moment he would be called to the confrontation line.

When he came today, he decided to go. He said he could not bear the possibility of his one -year -old son without a father.

In 1969, he across the Canadian border with his wife and son.

“I once felt guilty about it or I was my brother,” said Mr. Hug, who lives in northern British Columbia.

Make different jobs, including firefighting and domination, before a small cutting company has finally possessed. However, Mr. Hug did not abandon his American nationality and feel a convergence of the country he left behind.

He said, “I am concerned about the state of our world.”

vjosa isa It contributed to the reports from Toronto.