Xanadu 2012: Conscience Canada    
 Conscience Canada3 comments
7 May 2005 @ 21:54, by swanny

Origins of Conscience Canada

In 1982, with the entrenchment of the Charter of Rights, 60 peace tax supporters set up the first private Canadian peace fund. They diverted about 10% of their taxes to the fund. They took the position that any contribution to a war effort was a violation of their constitutional right to freedom of conscience and religion.

The tax protest was first started by Quakers in 1978, but it became non-denominational with the formation of Conscience Canada in 1983.

A recent case which ended up at the Supreme Court of Canada involved a Vancouver physician, Dr. Jerilynn Prior, a Quaker. Dr. Prior had refused to pay a portion of her American income tax during the Vietnam War. In 1983, Dr. Prior, by that time a resident of Canada, began to subtract the military portion from her Canadian taxes. She was told by the office of the Revenue Minister that Revenue Canada has no authority to make arrangements to substitute community service for payment of taxes. The courts, beginning at the local level and ending at the Supreme Court of Canada, have denied Dr. Prior's right to withhold or redirect taxes.

Dr. Prior is now appealing to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. Her council, Thomas R. Berger, states in the application to the Commission that "by requiring Dr. Prior to pay taxes for military purposes, Canada is violating Article 18." Article 18 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights grants freedom" to manifest...religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching." The international legal process will be a lengthy one.

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7 May 2005 @ 22:11 by swanny : statement



Statement to the Troops

We are veterans of the United States armed forces. We stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States' all out war on Iraq. We span many wars and eras, have many political views and we all agree that this war is wrong. Many of us believed serving in the military was our duty, and our job was to defend this country. Our experiences in the military caused us to question much of what we were taught. Now we see our REAL duty is to encourage you as members of the U.S. armed forces to find out what you are being sent to fight and die for and what the consequences of your actions will be for humanity. We call upon you, the active duty and reservists, to follow your conscience and do the right thing.
In the last Gulf War, as troops, we were ordered to murder from a safe distance. We destroyed much of Iraq from the air, killing hundreds of thousands, including civilians. We remember the road to Basra -- the Highway of Death -- where we were ordered to kill fleeing Iraqis. We bulldozed trenches, burying people alive. The use of depleted uranium weapons left the battlefields radioactive. Massive use of pesticides, experimental drugs, burning chemical weapons depots and oil fires combined to create a toxic cocktail affecting both the Iraqi people and Gulf War veterans today. One in four Gulf War veterans is disabled.

During the Vietnam War we were ordered to destroy Vietnam from the air and on the ground. At My Lai we massacred over 500 women, children and old men. This was not an aberration, it's how we fought the war. We used Agent Orange on the enemy and then experienced first hand its effects. We know what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder looks, feels and tastes like because the ghosts of over two million men, women and children still haunt our dreams. More of us took our own lives after returning home than died in battle.


Link = http://www.calltoconscience.net/  

8 May 2005 @ 06:35 by gea : Thanks for the link, Swanny.
From the Statement, "If the people of the world are ever to be free, there must come a time when being a citizen of the world takes precedence over being the soldier of a nation." When the people will get that and act accordingly, we´ll be one step nearer to a flowering of humanity.  

8 May 2005 @ 12:22 by swanny : Yes
Youre most welcome Gea  

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