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US war deserter wins deportation case in Canada


TORONTO - A National Guardsman who refused to redeploy to Iraq was granted a last-minute reprieve from deportation to the United States on Wednesday when Canada's Federal Court said he could stay while it decides whether to hear his case. Sgt. Corey Glass, 25, was the first Iraqi war deserter from the U.S. to face imminent deportation from Canada. Glass, who had already moved out of his Toronto apartment and was set to return to the U.S. and possible jail time, was ecstatic. "This is great news," Glass said. "It buys a lot of time." Glass has petitioned to be allowed to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. He is one of about 200 American deserters believed to have come to Canada to avoid service in Iraq. So far, Canadian immigration officials and the courts have rejected efforts to grant them refugee status. A Canadian journalist compared the deportation case of the US soldier with Filipina caregiver Juana Tejada who is calling for authorities to let her stay in Canada while battling stage-4 cancer. In his column piece entitled, 'Our nanny state, save for nannies,' Joe Fiorito defended Tejada who is bound to leave the country on August 8. "We live in one of the richest countries in the world. We have the resources to aid a dying woman who came here at our request. She earned her way, and she earned the right." Fiorito said that while Canada’s House of Commons approved a motion allowing Corey and others like him to remain in Canada as permanent residents, the government is "kicking Juana Tejada out of Toronto" and "sending her home to die." "She must go. He might stay. There was no motion in Parliament for her. Why the hell not? Is it race? Is it class? Is it gender?" asked Fiorito. AP, with reports from GMANews.TV
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