Have you heard about the controversy that's brewing in Nelson, B.C.? There are people there who want to mount a monument to those who came to Canada during the Vietnam war to avoid the draft. Apparently a pretty benign piece of bronze with one figure holding out an arm and hand to two other figures.



The Veterans of Foreign wars is up in arms, no pun intended, about it.



They're sending all sorts of emails to the Nelson Mayor and Chamber of Commerce about how Nelson is off there list of vacation destinations.

The idea is to unveil the monument in 2006.







You may be able to find more but searching for the story that came out Sept 25 on CanWest News Service.  125,000 Americans fled to Canada in those years, a lot of them to Nelson.  Only about half returned with the amnesty in 1977.  

So the other half are still here and presumably making themselves to home and integrated into Canadian society.  



As Utah Phillips says, the wealth of the west is built by draft dodgers fleeing Europe to America.  Draft resisting should be honoured.