CANADA: A Place to Get Away From It All

MONTREAL--Even in the dead of Montreal's winter, today may be the first day of the rest of your life. For the young American who has just crossed the Canadian border fleeing the bite of the draft, there isn't much choice. Today's beginning is legally yesterday's ending.

Return to the States usually promises only indictment for draft evasion, jail, and a huge fine. Attorney General Ramsey Clark prosecuted more than a thousand people under the Selective Service Act last year. With the new draft law, business is likely to increase.

So will the flow to Canada. Between five and ten thousand are there now. More than 1500 are in Montreal. The local Council to Aid War Resisters here reports that that number is increasing by 20 a day.

And yet, among the more radical expatriates there is little sense that exile from the U.S. is final, even less that they are separated from significant events there. The violent opposition to the war that has caused many of them to seek refuge in Canada has united them here. Much of the Montreal anti-war movement is American-inspired and American-led.

More surprising, activities are not confined to Canada. More than twenty exiles living in Montreal risked the threat of arrest in the States to march in October's Moblization Against the War in Washington. "Americans in Exile," a self-styled "cadre patterned on the model afforded by Che Guevara," is presently organizing units to foray into the States to encourage others to follow the route that they have taken.

A Place to Organize

Among the far-left radicals who comprise at least half of the American contigent here, Montreal isn't a new home but a new place where organization against the war can safely be continued. They look back across the border more than forward to what kind of life they can make here.

"I couldn't go to Vietnam," explained one ex-Worcester school teacher, "so it came down to a choice between five years in Leavenworth and coming up here. I can't do any good for anyone in prison, but the problems that I am trying to solve are North American more than American and I will be as effective here as I ever was in the States."

For another large segment of exiles, the rationale is less articulate and perhaps myopic. Most of the radical Americans in Montreal are either college dropouts or recent graduates. But the publicity that has attended their exodus has filtered down to a younger and more naive group. More and more high-school dropouts, teeny-boppers, and hippies are arriving in Montreal armed with little money and less ability to rationalize what they are doing here.

Many aren't even opposed to the war. Service was a hurdle that Montreal got them around. "What the hell," said one nineteen-year-old from the Bronx, "I got my notice one day in the mail and went to a bar to have a drink before I went. There was a guy there just back from Vietnam: two wooden arms, two wooden legs, and no disability payments. 'What's in it for me?' I said to myself and caught the next bus for here. I would have gone except Canada's where it's at and the Army wasn't going to take care of me if I got shot." He is sure he will get back to the States when the heat cools off.

Aura of Unreality

It is almost certain not to. There is a real aura of unreality to the exile scene here that is produced by the tension between the expectations of the expatriates and the demands of the United States laws. The radicals focus only on today's war, the hippies on tomorrow's bread, and the law on forever. Except for a few unlitigated areas it is almost certain that flight to Canada to avoid the draft means that you spend the rest of your life there.

Few here have come to grips with that fact yet; fewer still have started to assess the possibilities of making a fresh start in a foreign land. Among most there is the vague and some-what naive assumption that this isn't the final thing but only a moment in their lives.

The more sober and responsible resisters stake their faith in the few cases where local draft boards, notified of a registrant's move to Canada before they have issued an order to report, have re-classified him I-Y in order to avoid unbecoming publicity. Others see the election of a benevolent President in 1968 or 1972 who will grant a general amnesty. And for the radical fringe the revolution in the States is impending. When it comes they will return vindicated and triumphant.

In the meantime their safety, if not their economic well-being, is guaranteed in Montreal. There is nothing formidable about coming through the Canadian checking points despite the feeling that such an illegal act as fleeing the draft should be more exciting. The customs officials ask few questions, require no identification, and listen to no answers.

Border Problems

What few border problems there have been have come from the other side. Twice last fall American immigration officials charged only with checking those coming from Canada to the United States stopped two suspicious-looking young men going into Quebec and ran thorough checks on their draft statuses. The Montreal Council to Aid War Resisters screamed to Ottawa, Ottawa screamed to the United States, and there seems little likelihood of a repetition of the incidents.

Once inside, the exile is technically beyond the reach of Federal authorities. Canada will extradite those convicted of a crime in the United States only if it is also a crime within her own borders. Since she has no draft, she does not regard draft dodgers as criminals.

This has not ended all fear among the American community here of being shipped back to the States. The spectre of the FBI looms large in their lives; there are daily stories of white Chryslers with American plates and suspicious men with cameras.

Most of this can be chalked up to paranoia. There is, however, an increasing number of deserters in Montreal in whom the FBI does have a legitimate interest. Once discovered, Canada would be obligated to extradite them since she, too, maintains a standing army. Only once last summer did the FBI mess with an expatriated draft-resister. The adverse publicity that ensued when they grabbed him in Vancouver, locked him in an airplane, and flew him to Seattle where he was arrested guarantees that they won't try that again.

Fictitious Jobs

That doesn't mean, however, that the Canadian government won't reject Americans for other reasons. Visitors' status is good for six months only. Prior to that anyone who intends to stay longer must obtain landed immigration status. This is simple enough for anyone with a college degree and a usually fictitious job offer that sympathetic groups in Montreal are willing to provide.

The standards, however, are distinctly middle-class. Even if he comes through airport customs, where his application will be accepted immediately, there is at least a two-month delay in a ruling on it. During that period he must keep his nose clean.

That there is some chafing under the strain of the demand is some indication of the role that the resister sees for himself here. The anti-war activist is anxious to be about his business and can't, for fear of being packed up in the increasingly frequent demonstrations at McGill University. "I came here to get out of that middle-class bag," remarked one, "and look where they've got me now." But Logos, the local underground paper, harbors a number of the hippier American exiles; it is presently staffed by the usual long-haired contingent and a select few who look like advertisements for Brooks Brothers.

While it cannot admit it publicly, the Canadian government is reported to welcome the flow of Americans here and is unlikely to deny landed immigrant status to many. For years one of the critical problems the country has been saddled with is the flow of brains and talent out of the country to the United States where wages are higher and prospects brighter. Draft resistance may reverse the flow.

Americans in Demand

Technicians, scientists, and skilled administrators are in great demand here--that they are among the least likely to come disturbs no one for the moment. Employers show little aversion to hiring possible felons from the United States for important positions. The head of the Canadian equivalent of our poverty program is a 25-year-old exile from Chicago.

Prospects for the less skilled, including college graduates, are more limited. A few Americans teach in the local schools, but since Montreal is largely French-speaking, two languages are generally prerequisite. The language barrier also eliminates any job here that might involve substantial contact with the public.

And the fact that 80 per cent of Montreal's economy (and 75 per cent of Canada's as a whole) is American-controlled may effectively cut off other traditional middle-class pursuits, Last week, IBM's subsidiary here hired a recent Berkeley graduate. When he reported for work he was told that he would be flown to New York for a month's training. He quit on the spot.

As the number of draft resisters increases, the situation is likely to become worse. Sympathizers in Montreal feel that pressure will almost certainly be brought on American interests here to be as tough as possible on exiles. While the local citizenry is now largely indifferent to the presence of the expatriates there are signs that they may become increasingly sensitive to the influx of what at least one radio commentator has called "outlaws."

A Bed, Some Food

For the moment these trends are of almost no concern to those living in exile here. Most are content to make do with what they have. And what they have is largely provided by a host of sympathetic groups in the city pledged to helping them find their way. Contact will find a bed, a place to eat, and potential jobs. The Montreal Council to Aid War Resisters will clear up border disputes and lead Americans through immigration forms.

Beyond that expatriates are expected to make their own way. Many of the younger ones drift to Toronto where the language barrier disappears and where the demand for physical labor is high. Of those who stay many go back to school at McGill and continue to work against the war, while others take to more esoteric pursuits. Midnght Magazine, with a circulation of over a million in the United States, is now written, edited, and published (complete with such fictional gems as "I was an LSD Baby") in Montreal by three college dropouts from New York.

Most here consider the long-range future of a life in Canada with about that much seriousness. The majority have not been here long enough to weigh the full impact of living in a foreign city, cut off from the social fabric of America. The only other major expatriate movement that this country has witnessed began in the twenties with Malcolm Cowley and friends singing "Hello Central, Give Me No-Man's Land" on the boat to Europe. They were back two years later no happier about the state of affairs in America but unable to live away from it. That avenue isn't open here.

Mr. Hall, a graduate of Princeton, is a second-year student at the Law School.