U.S. Army deserter Corey Glass came to Toronto hoping to avoid being sent back to Iraq

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Corey Glass looks and sounds much like any average 25-year-old. And he would be if it weren't for the fact he'll be deported to the U.S. on July 10 to face charges of desertion from the U.S. Army and the Iraq War.

Glass, who arrived in Canada in August 2007 and resides in a modest apartment in Parkdale, hails from Fairmount, Ind. He voluntarily joined the National Guard in 2004 believing he could help in disaster zone scenarios or to defend American soil should the country fall under an enemy attack.

Trained as a radio operator, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant (from that of an E4 Specialist - an enlisted rank that falls between a private and a corporal) and he was subsequently shipped to Iraq in early 2005. When he got there, he was assigned two tasks, neither of which had anything to do with radios.

"I have no idea why they promoted me, I even argued against it," he said. "You have to go to school to be a sergeant and I didn't school for that."

Though he was slated to serve 18 months in Iraq, he only served six as both a military intelligence analyst and as a battle non-commissioned officer working 16-hour days on average.

"It got to me one day after something that happened and I can't go into that detail but I had to quit," he said. "I didn't feel (the war) was the right thing to do from the beginning and I definitely didn't feel we should be doing this to the Iraqis. ... I went because I was ordered to go but it got to a point where my conscience wasn't clear with what I was doing."

He tried unsuccessfully to get transferred to a unit outside of Iraq. Instead, he was granted a two-week pass stateside to unwind due to stress.

"I told them I wouldn't be coming back," he said. "They said to me, 'You'll be back. Desertion is punishable by death during wartime.' ... I felt I did everything I could (through official channels) to not be a part of the gross human rights violations going on over there."

He didn't go back but he didn't have a strategy either. So he hid in the U.S. for eight months before typing the word "desertion" into the Google search engine and up popped website after website about Canada. That led him to the Toronto-based U.S. War Resisters Support Campaign whose members took Glass in and helped him find housing.

If deported, he would be subject to anything from a reduction in rank and a return to Iraq to the possibility of facing the death penalty.

"That's the spectrum I'm looking at," he said. "I don't get any bargaining tools. I can't hire a lawyer. I can't strike a deal (plea bargain). I can't get anything."

Glass is one of an estimated 700 U.S. military personnel currently residing in Canada seeking refuge from the U.S Army. On June 3, the Canadian Parliament voted in favour of a resolution that called on the Conservative government to allow U.S. war resisters to apply for permanent resident status in Canada and to cease all deportation and removal proceedings against them.

The vote in the House of Commons came at the end of the day's Question Period. Several of the U.S. war resisters were in attendance. Reportedly, Prime Minister Stephen Harper got up and walked off the floor as the motion was being introduced for the vote.

"The government is only morally obligated to follow the resolution, it's not legally binding though the majority of Parliament voted for it," Glass said. "Evidently it'd be the will of the people if it's the majority of the House voting for it.

"I'm getting deported on July 10."

When asked if he would return to the U.S. if that country invited him to come home without reprimand, Glass countered, "will they admit the war was wrong?"

And if he is deported, the young man expressed a quiet confidence and gratitude that made him seem mature beyond his years.

"I'm a guest in Canada and I'm not going to break any laws while I'm here, that would be absolutely rude of me," he said. "(If deported) I'll turn myself in and I'll leave.

"I'll be sad if I have to leave (Toronto) ... but I'm at peace with myself and my maker."

According to the War Resisters Support Campaign, the next step is to encourage the public to write to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Diane Finley, and Harper to ensure that the June 3 resolution is implemented.