The War Resisters' Support group in Nanaimo (WRS) is a project of United for Peace and Justice, Nanaimo, formed in resistance to the US invasion of Iraq. WRS takes the position that individuals leaving the US army, National Guard and any other group subject to deployment in Iraq deserve our support and respect.
WRS maintains liaison with support groups in Toronto, Victoria and Vancouver, supports their advocacy work and appreciates the financial help they provide for transportation of war resisters to official hearings.
We learned that War Resisters International (WRI), founded in 1921, based in England, opposes all war, whether "waged by a state, by a 'liberation army', or under the auspices of the United Nations, even if it is called a 'humanitarian military intervention.'" WRI co-ordinates 15 May - International Conscientious Objectors' Day and 1 December - Prisoners for Peace Day. The WRI program "Refuse to Kill" endorses "Support for asylum seekers and their lawyers, in cases of draft evasion, desertion, conscientious objection and other cases related to military service." International Conscientious Objectors' Day 2006 will focus on the situation of US COs and GIs who want to leave the US military.
War Resisters' Support (Mid Island) has incorporated WRI's internationally-recognised symbol, the broken rifle, into its logo.
The LET THEM STAY! campaign began with the arrival of the Key family in the area in the late fall of 2005. Committee members are mostly social justice activists of long standing in the area, who take the position that those who have come into our community seeking haven from intolerable conditions for objectors of conscience from the USA deserve our support just as much as their predecessors who resisted the war against Vietnam. WRS in Nanaimo believes that those with the courage to leave the US military rather than go to kill and destroy in Iraq have made heroic decisions and we will support those in our area as best we can.
WRS fundraises for necessities such as rent, medical bills and groceries for the three resisters in our area, including a family with four small children. Work of the campaign includes:
A war resister is a person who has made a decision of conscience to resist compliance with war and to strive for the removal of all causes of war.
Karen Kwiatkowski, retired senior Pentagon officer, responded to the question "Why Do We Fight?" in the movie of that name with the suggestion that people fight because they do not have the courage to say they will not. Buffy Saint-Marie's profound lyrics for Universal Soldier put the same question.