An American war resister who has called Vancouver home for the past two years has been ordered to leave the country by Friday.
Rodney Watson, who fled to Canada after finding out that his contract would be extended and he would be returned to a war zone in Iraq or Afghanistan, left a press conference Thursday without taking questions to attend a hearing at Federal Court in Vancouver.
“The hardest thing for me would be to leave my son,” said a choked-up Watson, who has an eight-month-old with his Canadian fiancée. “I don’t want to be torn away from him … I know that if I’m deported and sent to prison I will not be able to see any of those moments for who knows how long.”
Sarah Bjorknas, a member of the War Resisters Support Campaign, said resisters who are returned to the U.S. face about a year in prison.
