U.S. war resister released on conditions in Vancouver

An American war resister arrested on an immigration warrant in Nelson, B.C., Monday has been released from custody in Vancouver by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Robin Long, 24, has agreed to fill out a pre-removal risk assessment and will live at a home in Delta while reporting to the department once a month.

Long, who's from Boise, Idaho, served two years as a tanker in the U.S. Army at Fort Knox, Ky.,before he left and came to Canada in June 2005. He's been trying to pursue a refugee claim and apparently failed to tell immigration officials in Ontario he had moved to British Columbia.

Bob Ages of the War Resisters Campaign put up a $5,000 cash bond on Wednesday and offered up his home to the young man while he is being processed in Vancouver.

"The big issue is about the illegality of the war in Iraq," Ages told CBC News Wednesday afternoon.

"The fact that war crimes are going on and the fact that the war itself according to the United Nations is an aggressive unprovoked war crime … participation in such a war is a war crime so we should be a sanctuary for people who say, 'Whoa, this is not what I signed up for, I am getting out of here.'" he said.

Long's supporters said he was living in Marathon, Ont., with his partner and their small child. He then decided to go to B.C. to work. When the Canada Border Services Agency didn't get a response in Ontario for an interview, a warrant was issued.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada was willing to offer Long a pre-removal risk assessment back in Ontario, but he left the province leaving no forwarding address.

The assessment evaluates the risk a refugee claimant will face if he or she is to be sent back to the originating country.