Kim Rivera was just trying to raise her four kids

Friday night, Kimberly Rivera ended up at Fort Drum in New York. How did she get there? She got to New York from Texas via Canada with a stop over in Iraq. Kim and Mario Rivera were, like many Americans, suffering in a bad economy. They had two children. Kim decided to sign up and, like many, was scammed by her recruiter which explains how she ended up in Iraq.  Yves Engler (iPolitics.ca) reported: While Rivera expected to spend her time unloading equipment at a Colorado base she soon found herself guarding a foreign operating base in Iraq. It was from this vantage point that she became disillusioned with the war. Riviera was troubled by a two-year-old Iraqi girl who came to the base with her family to claim compensation after a bombing by U.S. forces. "She was just petrified," Rivera explained. "She was crying, but there was no sound, just tears flowing out of her eyes. She was shaking. I have no idea what had happened in her little life. All I know is I wasn't seeing her: I was seeing my own little girl. I could imagine my daughter being one of those kids throwing rocks at soldiers, because maybe someone she loved had been killed. That Iraqi girl haunts my soul." Back in the US in January 2007, Kim decided she couldn't return to Iraq and she and her husband and their two kids went to Canada. Canada, of course, was the land of freedom and peace and the country that welcomed those seeking to avoid the draft and those seeking to quit the war during Vietnam.  More than anything in recent years, that helped cement Canada's reputation as an enlightened and peaceful people. Feel sorry for them now.  Pierre Trudeau's glowing legacy that allowed the country to shine so bright has been replaced with Stephen Harper's petty nature.  Last month, Kim Rivera was informed that she would have to leave Canada by September 20th or face deportation.  August 31st, Kim declared at a Toronto press conference: Kim Rivera: If you want to know my biggest fear is being separated from my children and having to -- having to sit in a prison for politically being against the war in Iraq which I had experience in.  Without that experience, I know that I would not have come to the decision I had made to leave and also be here in Canada for people to know that experience which I had spoken many of.  So the only thing that I guess I can really ask is that all of my legal applications that I applied be considered and my agency application also get a decision.   That's pretty much all I have.  Her children.  After moving to Canada, she and Mario had two more children.  The Stephen Harper government had no concern about Kim or Mario or their children 10-year-old Christian, 8-year-old Rebecca, 4-year-old Katie Marie and 18-month-old Gabriel.  The prime minister gave no thought to what uprooting the children would mean. The War Resisters Support Campaign had warned that Kim would be arrested.  The Harper government did not want to listen.  That's a point WRSC's Jesse McLaren stressed again when he spoke to Sarika Sehgal (CTV) the day after Kim was arrested. Jesse McLaren: The government claims to not be involved but in fact Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has a strong record. Firstly, he labeled war resisters bogus refugee claimants and the Canadian Council of Refugees clearly was dismissive of that and claimed that that provided evidence of the strong appearance political interference. Second of all, he's actually institutionalized his own personal ideological beliefs with what's called Operational Bulletin 202. And this is basically an instructive where he's told immigration officials to flag all US Iraq War resisters as "criminally inadmissiable" even though they refused to be criminally involved in the war in Iraq. And Amnesty International and the former chair of the Refugee Board have spoken out against Operational Bulletin 202, saying that it mistates the law and seeks to intrude on the independence of immigration. And finally, just this week, his lawyers claimed that the risk of Kimberly being arrested was merely speculative where in fact we have proof today that she was arrested just as we'd feared. Thursday, September 20th, Kim crossed the border.  Her family did as well.  But not with Kim.  The War Resisters Support Campaign notes, "Her family, included four minor children, crossed separately. Kimberly did not want her children to have to see her detained by the US military, as this would be traumatic for them." Diana Mehta (Canadian Press) reports, "Kimberly Rivera complied with a deportation order and presented herself at the border at Gananoque, Ont., on Thursday.  The War Resisters Support Campaign -- which issued multiple warnings that Ms. Rivera would likely face a court martial and jail time on her return -- said the mother of four was immediately arrested, detained and transferred to U.S. military custody."  Kim was forced out of Canada by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his henchman Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.  Four children are currently without a mother because of Stephen Harper.  It didn't have to be this way. Canadians held rallies and demonstrations to show their support for Kim throughout September.  They phoned the Immigration Minister to ask him to let Kim and her family stay.   In less than 12 days, 20,348 people signed on the War Resisters Support Campaign's petition to let Kim and her family stay in Canada.  Prominent Canadians released a joint-statement: We the undersigned support conscientious objector Kimerly Rivera and her family who are threatened with imminent deportation from Canada on September 20.  Kim deployed to Iraq in 2006 and sought asylum in Canada in 2007.  She faces a court martial and up to 5 years in military prison for refusing to participate any longer in the Iraq War -- a war which had no legal sanction.  Kim would be separated from her four young children, two of whom were born in Canada.  A felony conviction would mean a lifetime of difficulty finding employment.  We call on the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kennedy to do the right thing and allow Kimberly Rivera and her family to stay in Canada. Andy Barrie, broadcaster and Vietnam War resister Dan Bar-El, award-winning children's author Maude Barlow, author and activist Maev Beaty, actor Shirley Douglas, O.C., actor Dennis Foon, award-winning writer Richard Greenblatt, playwright/actor Ron Hawkins, musician Naomi Klein, author [child of a Vietnam War resister Michael who went from New Jersey to Montreal in 1967 with his wife Bonnie] Ron Kovic, author, Born on the Fourth of July Avi Lewis, filmmaker Peter Showler, Director, the Refugee Forum, University of Ottawa; former chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board Jack Todd, journalist and Vietnam War resister Alexandre Trudeau, filmmaker Others calling for Kim to be allowed to remain in Canada included Archbishop Desmond Tutu,  the United Steelworkers of Canada,  Canada's National Union of Public and General Employees and the United Church of Canada. To all of those people, Stephen Harper flipped the bird.  He ignored public opinion just as he ignored the consequences Kim would face. In doing so, in deporting a mother of four young children, in helping remove children from their mother, he decided to demonstrate that Stephen Harper's Canada has none of the glory that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau amplified and allowed to shine around the world.  Stephen Harper's Canada is a petty country, constricting a loving and caring people.  When he's finally run out of office, few will miss him. --------------- Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Hollow Man."