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U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid War

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

A A A Comments (6) By Megan Feldman Wednesday, Mar 11 2009

...continued from page 7

While she cooks eggs in the kitchen, the phone rings. Mario, sitting at the computer, picks it up. His eyes widen as he listens.

"Oh, that's great. Wait untilI tell Kimberly," he says.

Photo by Ian Willms

Kim Rivera, awaiting news on her stay of deportation, rests while her husband Mario tends to their baby Katie at their Toronto apartment.

Photo by Ian Willms

Kim Rivera and her children, Christian, six, and Rebecca, four, are waiting for Canada's high courts to review the government's denial of their asylum application.

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He listens and nods, then hangs up. He calls to his wife, who appears holding a spatula.

"So unfortunately, Alyssa called about the stay..." he tells her.

Rivera's breath catches. "Uh-huh?"

"We didn't get it," he says, trying unsuccessfully to disguise his grin.

"Are you messing with me?" Rivera says.

Her husband laughs. "We got it."

"For how long?"

"Maybe through June. We don't know."

Rivera exhales, her shoulders relaxing a bit. "All I can say is thank God."

Mario nods. "That buys us a few months," he says. "But we're not out of the woods yet."

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Michael 03/18/2009 7:32:00 PM

Shame on Lee Zaslofsky - who has no legal authority to help anyone stay in Canada - for encouraging these young soldiers go AWOL.

Patti 03/17/2009 6:57:00 PM

It seems as tho this entire comment section was "pick on Kim" and forget the article. I can see where she was disillusioned, and if you stopped a moment and thought about it maybe you would better understand. She, as did many others, joined the services because they had goals - whether it just be for income or college education - both of which the recruiters loudly advertise and PROMISE. The way it is done is appealling to most young people in that it will solve their current problems and brighten their futures. But, recruiters LIE. They don't give the entire story. Some will promise that no war front will ever be visited IF you chose one thing or another. The people in Canada and hiding at home all have good reasons - good personal reasons for leaving when they did. I can not condemn them when our country has turned our backs on them and supported illegal immigrants instead. The support, the political backing, the governemt help that should be theirs in their time of need is instead filtered into illegals in our country. The ones you call whimps - the ones that went in solely for income - then left because of the horrible things they saw or were forced to do - - don't you KNOW that they would have NOT gone and joined up had our country been there for them BEFORE they made this drastic decision? Think about it. I can see this and not condemn them - and my husband served 22 years HONORABLY before he retired. He served 2 tours in Viet Nam. He personally said he has no hard feeling for deserters as they have to do as they felt was right for themselves. Sometimes the ones that feel so badly and continue to just serve turn out to be the ones that put their fellow soldier in harms way. When they can not do their job, it IS best they leave. Uncle Sam won't just let you leave if you ask now-a-days. It is not the same. Just pray for them now and hope they can find some peace.

njtx71 03/13/2009 11:16:00 PM

i am confused by ms. rivera. she kept having kids with her husband while she worked at walmart. if she was worried about the pressures of having a young family, married or not, there's an aisle in walmart that she should have checked out. hint: it's not the aisle where you can find mops and brooms. then, she joins the army so she can make more money and lose weight. i guess "oh yeah, and our country's at war, but i'm not going to see any of that action, right? i'll just make money by going to boot camp and lose weight in the process...like i'm being paid to lose weight! score!" oh, and there's some whole thing where her mom is annoyed with her for being a burden on her and taking her husband's last name because it's latino and not an anglo last name. what the...? once she's actually in iraq, which is like totally a bummer town y'all especially since, you know, there's a WAR going on there, she witnesses atrocities and gets homesick and wants out. how exactly is her experience different from, oh, just about every other person stationed there? i'll buy that she might have had a crisis of conscience, but all the reasons she gave for joining, i.e. "more money", "lose weight" seem like some weird pipe dream sold by a 3am infomercial. she motored to canada with her kids and now they might deport her. well, that's a big bag of 'duh' if there ever was one. on a personal note, i've known more than one person who just up and left for canada, deserting for many other reasons but not because of the military, and let's just say that the texas twang does not do you any favors in toronto and the surrounding areas when it comes to getting a job.

njtx71 03/13/2009 11:14:00 PM

Helena 03/13/2009 7:32:00 AM

Maybe if this woman and her husband didnt keep having children they couldnt afford, she wouldnt be trying to get a free ride and be "forced by poverty" to join the military. A little personal responsibility please.

Billy Deez 03/13/2009 3:17:00 AM

This article is insane, it seems like they could have picked a better, more sympathetic target. For one, why does the author of this article seemed surprised that she took her husband's name??? B/c he's hispanic? So? MOst women take their husband's name, why does this guy seem to think there is something unusual about this? DId he think it was strange practice for a white woman to not only marry a hispanic, but to take his name?? Secondly, this lady Kim "I took my hispanic husband's name" Rivera is a narcissist. Classic narcissist. She is obvioulsy bitter. First, she gets mad when her husband works, then when he takes vacation, she gets mad he's not working!!??! THEN, through this whole thing, her whole attitude is "ME ME ME." Look what this has done to ME. She's an idiot, a narcissist and really deserves no compassion. Only a short sentence where she claims some semblance of responsibility, but other than that, no mention how she uprooted her WHOLE fmaily. She doesn't say anything about uprooting her 2 kids and moving them to another country. Kim Rivera is a selfish, narcissist who is not against the war per se. She wanted a free ride w/o having to work for it. She makes up reasons to be against the war. She feigns offense by how Americans supposedly treat Iraqis. She could care less about them. She cares only about herself. She's the worst type of deserter, she signed up voluntarily, she was fine with it until deployed, not like she spent YEARS there, she spent a few MONTHS in IRaq, and now claims to be an objector. I wish the press at least found a more worthy subject for their story.

U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid War

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

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