Vietnam War Resisters in Canada

Individual Resisters
 

Creation of this listing finds inspiration in two separate events. First is an offer of a substantial personal memoir for placement on this web site. Second is discovery of the elusive story of what has to be the only ever Vietnam-War-Resister-in-Canada recipient of the U.S. Medal of Honor. (The book-length biography for Kenneth Michael Kays provides the merest mention of his brief stay in Canada.)

There are tens of thousands of Vietnam War resisters in Canada. Most remain unidentifiable and see little incentive to expose their histories. In this, Vietnam War resisters in Canada show kinship with the veterans of the Vietnam War. Both by nature embody the embarrassments that officialdoms and revisionist histories seek to manipulate and/or to disappear. As the circumstance of Kays demonstrates, the two groups, resisters and veterans, are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, U.S. military deserter/resisters constitute a significant proportion of the Vietnam War resisters in Canada.

The basis for inclusion here starts with one plausible/credible source relating to a verifiable historical individual. Memoirs, biographies, fictionalizations, and fonds in archives get special attention. For a handful of persons previously listed as individuals on the index page for this web site, reformatted entries are moved over to this section.

Selection of the individuals who are listed here can only be unsystematic. The primary criterion is record of involvement in events and circumstances prior to the Carter pardon of 1977.

Anyone interested in seeing a listing added is invited to submit a draft entry for consideration. To facilitate file maintenance and overall site navigation, live links in this section are provided only for material that is served from this web site. Use cut-and-paste to access other web references.

Over a period of about fifty years, the initiator of this project has interacted with some of the listed individuals. That said, all material presented here without exception derives entirely from public sources.

If your own work makes any use of this freely provided information resource, specific acknowledgment would be appropriate. Reference work is work too. Purportedly academic productions sometimes self-promote by piggybacking along while failing to mention the shoulders that support their pretensions. You know who you are.

AC   =   Amex-Canada
ARSM   =   American Refugee Service (Montreal)
CL   =   Crossing Lines
NSCAWO   =   Nova Scotia Committee to Aid War Objectors
OWH   =   Our Way Home
RCAD   =   Regina Committee of American Deserters
TADP   =   Toronto Anti-Draft Programme
VAEA   =   Vancouver American Exiles Association
VCAAWO   =   Vancouver Committee to Aid American War Objectors
WCAWO   =   Winnipeg Committee to Assist War Objectors

Darryl Adams   |   1947 – 1999   |   to Canada in 1968   |   AC • VAEA

Find-a-Grave – Darryl Glen Adams
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219696680/darryl-glen-adams

Fonds RBSC-ARC-1753 - Darryl Adams fonds
https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/darryl-adams-fonds
 

Rick Bébout   |   1950 – 2009   |   to Canada in 1969

Find-a-Grave – Rick Bébout
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219581106/rick-b%C3%A9bout

Leaving America and laying America to rest
http://www.rbebout.com/me/leaving.htm

Yankee refugees : escape from freedom
https://web.archive.org/web/20170329032139/http://www.clga.ca/Material/Records/docs/toronto/tor1971.htm#yanks
 

Bruce Beyer   |   1948 – 2019   |   in Canada and Sweden 1968-1977   |   AC

Mark Sommer. Bruce Beyer, 70, prominent Buffalo Nine anti-war activist. Buffalo News (15 Apr 2019)
https://web.archive.org/web/20210429202119/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/bruce-beyer-70-prominent-buffalo-nine-anti-war-activist/article_28184c1f-c83c-52d4-8b6f-7738815cec2f.html

Bruce Beyer 12.7.17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9PKykH8GQk
 

Mick Burrs / Steven Michael Berzensky   |   1940 – 2021   |   to Canada in 1965   |   CL

Bio – page 238 in: Crossing lines : poets who came to Canada in the Vietnam War era. Hamilton ON : Seraphim Editions, 2008. 256 pages
 

Allan Briesmaster   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1969   |   CL

Bio – page 239 in: Crossing lines : poets who came to Canada in the Vietnam War era. Hamilton ON : Seraphim Editions, 2008. 256 pages
 

Jim Christy   |   1945 –   |   to Canada in 1968   |   CL

Jim Christy. Real gone. Thornhill ON : Quattro Books, 2010. 120 pages

Jim Christy papers – Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/jim-christy-papers-190
 

Jack Colhoun   |   1945 –   |   in Canada 1970-1977   |   AC

Jack Colhoun. "War Resisters in Exile: the Memoirs of Amex-Canada." Amex-Canada 6:2 / 47 (Nov-Dec 1977) 11-78
https://www.vcn.bc.ca/~jjones/amexhistory.html
 

Gerry Condon   |   1947 –   |   in Canada and Sweden 1969-1975   |   AC • OWH • VAEA

KeyWiki – Gerry Condon
https://keywiki.org/Gerry_Condon
 

Dick Cotterill   |   1950 –   |   to Canada in 1972

Dick Cotterill. "My difficult decision to desert."
https://pier21.ca/dick-cotterill-my-difficult-decision-to-desert
 

Roger Davies   |   1945 –   |   to Canada in 1968   |   OWH

Roger Davies. "My life well-lived in Canada."
https://pier21.ca/roger-davies-my-life-well-lived-in-canada
 

Suzanne DeRusha   |   1944? –   |   in Canada 1965-1967

Suzanne DeRusha. "Draft dodger: on to Vancouver." (6 July 2013)
https://sixtiesandseventiesblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/draft-dodger-on-to-vancouver-by-suzanne-derusha/
 

Craig Dreeszen   |   1947 –   |   in Canada 1970-1984

Craig Dreeszen – Called to Serve Vietnam
https://web.archive.org/web/20201026104617/http://www.calledtoservevietnam.com/blog/those-who-left-and-those-who-refused/craig-dreezen/
 

Douglas/George Fetherling   |   1949 –   |   to Canada in 1967   |   CL

Douglas Fetherling. Travels by night : a memoir of the sixties. Toronto : Lester Publishing, 1994. 255 pages

Fonds RC0085 - Doug Fetherling fonds – McMaster University
https://archives.mcmaster.ca/index.php/doug-fetherling-fonds

Douglas Fetherling papers – Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/douglas-feathering-papers
 

Mark Frutkin   |   1948 –   |   to Canada in 1970   |   CL

Mark Frutkin : a few biographical notes
http://www.markfrutkin.com/bio.html

Erratic north : a Vietnam draft resister's life in the Canadian bush. Toronto : Dundurn Press, 2008. 240 pages
 

Gary Gallon   |   1945 – 2003   |   to Canada in late 1960s

Matthew Ramsey. "Pioneering environmentalist Gary Gallon dies at 58." Vancouver Sun (11 July 2003) B5
 

Steve Grossman   |   1946 –   |   in Canada 1972-1977   |   AC

Steve Grossman. "I want to go home, but ..." New York Times Magazine (2 Jan 1977) 8-9, 40, 47, 50
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/02/archives/i-want-to-go-home-but-at-age-30-a-draft-resister-living-in-canada.html
 

Ernest Hekkanen   |   1947 –   |   to Canada in 1969   |   CL • OWH

ABC Bookworld – Ernest Hekkanan
https://abcbookworld.com/writer/hekkanen-ernest/

Missing voices: Ernest Hekkanen (2021)
https://vimeo.com/498009288
 

Mike Hendricks   |   1942? –   |   to Canada in 1968   |   ARSM

Selective Service and amnesty – U.S. Senate hearing of Feb 28 to Mar 1 1972 (USGPO 1972) 225
 

C.J. Hinke   |   1950 –   |   in Canada 1969-1989  •  to Thailand in 1989

C.J. Hinke. Free radicals: war resisters in prison. Walterville OR : Trine Day, 2017. 400 pages

Fonds SC056 - Carl Hinke fonds
https://www.memorybc.ca/carl-hinke-fonds-2
 

Roger Hollander   |   1941 –   |   to Canada in 1967/1968 • in U.S. 1973-1976 for Ford clemency

About Roger Hollander
https://rogerhollander.wordpress.com/archived-articles/
 

Andrew Hubbertz   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1970

Andrew Hubbertz. Memoirs of the Vietnam War draft. Ottawa, 2021. 16 pages
https://www.vcn.bc.ca/~jjones/hubbertz.pdf
 

Bernie Jaffe   |   1945 – 2004   |   to Canada in 1967   |   TADP

Find-a-Grave – Bernard Daniel "Bernie" Jaffe
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219635562/bernard-daniel-jaffe
 

Paulette Jiles   |   1943 –   |   to Canada in 1969 • to U.S. in later 1980s

Paulette Jiles. Cousins. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. 365 pages
 

Thomas Glenn Jolley   |   1944 – 2014   |   in Canada 1967-1968

Wikipedia – Thomas Glenn Jolley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jolley
 

Joseph Jones   |   1947 –   |   to Canada in 1970   |   AC • CL • OWH

Bio – page 244 in: Crossing lines : poets who came to Canada in the Vietnam War era. Hamilton ON : Seraphim Editions, 2008. 256 pages
 

Kenneth Michael Kays   |   1949 – 1991   |   in Canada for one month 1969/1970

Randy K. Mills. Troubled hero : a medal of honor, Vietnam, and the war at home. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2006. xii, 167 pages
 

Michael Klein   |   1938 –   |   in Canada 1967-1969 • to U.S. 1970 • to Canada for job 1975   |   OWH

Michael Klein. Dissident doctor : catching babies and changing the status quo. Madeira Park BC : Douglas & McIntyre, 2018. xv, 288 pages
 

Dee Knight   |   1946 –   |   in Canada 1968-1974   |   AC

Dee Knight. My whirlwind lives : a political memoir & manifesto. Toronto : Guernica World Editions, 2022. x, 195 pages
 

Mark Krotter   |   1947 – 2005   |   to Canada in 1968

Find-a-Grave – Mark Musick Krotter
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220175497/mark-musick-krotter

Alison Johnson. The eleventh hour can't last forever. Brunswick ME : Cumberland Press, 2008. 191 pages
 

Richard Lemm   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1967   |   CL

Richard Lemm. Imagined truths : myths from a draft-dodging poet. New Westminster BC : Tidewater Press, 2021. 272 pages
 

Richard Lind   |   1945 – 2016   |   to Canada in 1968   |   AC • NSCAWO

Find-a-Grave – Richard Neal Lind
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/233775930/richard-neal-lind
 

Tony McQuail   |   1952 –   |   to Canada in 1971   |   OWH

Kristin Schwab. "These Americans moved to Canada for political reasons. They don't regret it." Guardian (19 Apr 2017)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/19/americans-move-canada-trump-bush-immigration
 

Keith Maillard   |   1942 –   |   to Canada in 1970   |   CL

Keith Maillard: a self portrait
https://web.archive.org/web/20210303183307/https://keithmaillard.com/an-expanded-more-personal-statement-about-keiths-life/
 

Tim Maloney   |   1945? –   |   to Canada in 1968   |   WCAWO

"Draft dodgers plan mass protest of Ford amnesty." Ottawa Citizen (24 Sept 1974) 14
 

Larry Martin   |   1946 – 2020   |   to Canada in 1969   |   OWH • VCAAWO

Obituary – Vancouver Sun (7 Feb 2020)
https://vancouversunandprovince.remembering.ca/obituary/laurence-martin-1078396003
 

Irene Mock   |   1949 – 2018   |   to Canada in 1971

Find-a-Grave – Irene Louise Popkin-Clurman Mock
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219607039/irene-louise-mock
 

Richard Moore   |   1947 –   |   to Sweden in 1969 • to Canada in 1971 • to U.S. sometime after 1978

Richard Moore. Richard : portrait of a Vietnam War resister. San Francisco : R. Moore, c1987. [40] pages
 

Allen Morgan   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1968

Allen Morgan. Dropping out in 3/4 time. New York : Seabury Press, c1972. 152 pages

Writers Union of Canada – Allen Morgan
https://www.writersunion.ca/member/allen-morgan
 

Philip Mullins   |   1945 –   |   in Canada 1968-1980 and 1985-1987

Ragnarokr – Philip M. Mullins
https://web.archive.org/web/20180831143805/http://ragnarokr.org/index.php-title=Philip_M._Mullins.html
 

Joe Nickell   |   1944 –   |   in Canada 1968-77   |   AC • CL

Persona tabs: Amnesty Recipient / Anti-War Activist / Exile / Federal Fugitive / ROTC Cadet / War Resister
http://www.joenickell.com/personas.html
 

Richard Orlandini   |   1945 – 2015   |   to Canada in 1969? • to Mexico in 2004   |   AC

Find-a-Grave – Richard Joseph Orlandini
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/233776968/richard-joseph-orlandini
 

Bud Osborn   |   1947 – 2014   |   to Canada in 1969

Find-a-Grave – Walton Homer “Bud” Osborn III
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219667159/walton-homer-osborn

Fonds MsC-164 - Bud Osborn fonds – Simon Fraser University Library
https://atom.archives.sfu.ca/msc-164
 

Richard Paterak   |   1943 –   |   to Canada in 1966   |   TADP

Anders Morley. "Last-generation Americans." Maisonneuve (6 Mar 2018)
https://maisonneuve.org/article/2018/03/6/last-generation-americans/
 

Dick Perrin   |   1948 –   |   to France in 1967 • to Canada in 1969   |   RCAD

Dick Perrin. G.I. resister : the story of how one American soldier and his family fought the war in Vietnam. Victoria, B.C. : Trafford, 2002. 170 pages

Richard Perrin papers, 1966-2001 – University of Massachusetts Boston
https://openarchives.umb.edu/digital/collection/p15774coll8/id/257
 

John Phillips   |   1945 – 2010   |   to Canada in 1967

Find-a-Grave – John Franklin Phillips
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219884882/john-franklin-phillips

Baldwin Street Gallery Archives
https://bsgarchives.blogspot.com/
 

Stanley J. Pietlock jr   |   1943 –   |   to Canada in 1967   |   AC

William Borders. "Some U.S. exiles become Canadian." New York Times (13 May 1973) 6
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/13/archives/some-us-exiles-become-canadian-judges-confirm-trend-a-hand-decision.html
 

Bruce Proctor   |   1943 – 2011   |   to Sweden in 1968 • to Canada in 1972

Find-a-Grave – Bruce Stevens Proctor
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219602418/bruce-stevens-proctor
 

Mark Satin   |   1946 –   |   in Canada 1967-1977   |   TADP

Wikipedia – Mark Satin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Satin

Toronto Anti-Draft Programme: where the guys who said “No!” came for help
http://www.radicalmiddle.com/tadp.htm

Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada
http://www.radicalmiddle.com/manual.htm

Bringing draft dodgers to Canada in the 1960s: the reality behind the romance (Sept 2015)
http://www.radicalmiddle.com/dodgers.htm

Manuscript Collection MS COLL 00629 - Mark Satin Papers
https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/mark-satin-papers
 

Michael Shaffer   |   1942 – 2019   |   to Canada in 1970   |   OWH

Find-a-Grave – Michael Brooke Shaffer
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219929409/michael-brooke-shaffer
 

Norm Sibum   |   1947 –   |   to Canada in 1968   |   CL

Bio – page 250 in: Crossing lines : poets who came to Canada in the Vietnam War era. Hamilton ON : Seraphim Editions, 2008. 256 pages
 

Donald Laird Simons   |   1945 –   |   in Canada 1971-1977

Donald Laird Simons. I refuse : memories of a Vietnam War objector. Trenton, N.J. : Broken Rifle Press, c1992. 184 pages
 

Edward Starkins   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1970   |   VAEA

Fonds RBSC-ARC-1526 - Edward Starkins fonds
https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/edward-starkins-fonds
 

Mary Ann Steggles   |   1949 –   |   to Canada in 1969

4 June – A Special Bittersweet Day
https://maryannsteggles.com/2019/06/03/4-june-a-special-bittersweet-day/

Wikipedia: Mary Ann Steggles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Steggles
 

Samuel J. Steiner   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1968

Sam Steiner. "Alternative service or alternative resistance?: a Vietnam War draft resister in Canada." Journal of Mennonite Studies 25 (2007) 195-204
https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/viewFile/1234/1226

Samuel J. Steiner fonds / Mennonite Archives of Ontario
https://uwaterloo.ca/mennonite-archives-ontario/personal-collections/samuel-j-steiner
 

Susan Clemmer Steiner   |   1947 – 2019   |   to Canada in 1969

Find-a-Grave – Susan D. Clemmer Steiner
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202777223/susan-d-steiner
 

Charley Stimac   |   1949 – 2018   |   to Canada in 1972   |   AC

Find-a-Grave – Charles Michael Stimac
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219482142/charles-michael-stimac
 

John Strickland   |   1943 –   |   to Canada in 1967-1986

John Strickland – Called to Serve Vietnam
https://web.archive.org/web/20201026100213/http://www.calledtoservevietnam.com/blog/those-who-left-and-those-who-refused/john-strickland/
 

John Swalby   |   1948 –   |   to Canada in 1968

Interview with John Swalby – Texas Tech Vietnam Archive
https://vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/90244
 

Richard Teleky   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1968   |   CL

"Tale of torment and tragedy based on real life and death." Victoria Times-Colonist (25 November 2001) D10

Wikipedia – Richard Teleky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Teleky
 

Jack Todd   |   1946 –   |   to Canada in 1969

Jack Todd. The taste of metal : a deserter's story. Toronto : HarperFlamingo Canada, 2001. xiii, 253 pages
 

Steve Trimm   |   1948 –   |   in Canada 1969-1974

Bill Buell. He headed north during the Vietnam War. Daily Gazette (14 April 2019)
https://web.archive.org/web/20211118191951/https://dailygazette.com/2019/04/14/he-headed-north-during-the-vietnam-war/

Steve Trimm. Walking wounded: men's lives during and since the Vietnam War. Norwood NJ : Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1993. xx, 204 pages

Steve Trimm Papers – SCPC-DG-232 Swarthmore College Peace Collection
https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-232
 

Anton Wagner   |   1949 –   |   to Canada in 1969   |   AC

Anton Wagner – CFMDC
https://www.cfmdc.org/filmmaker/1345
 

Roger Neville Williams   |   1943 – ? deceased   |   to Canada in 1968 • also elsewhere • 1973 return to U.S.   |   AC

Roger Neville Williams papers (7 Sept 2018)
https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/show/archives-on-the-air/2018-09-07/archives-on-the-air-60-a-voice-from-exile-roger-neville-williams-papers
 

Jesse Winchester   |   1944 – 2014   |   to Canada in 1967

Ian McGillis. Jesse Winchester's debut at 50: the birth of an unassuming masterpiece. Montreal Gazette (14 Aug 2020)
https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/jesse-winchesters-debut-at-50-the-birth-of-an-unassuming-masterpiece
 

Thomas York   |   1940 – 1988   |   to Canada in 1962

Thomas York. And sleep in the woods : the story of one man's spiritual quest. Toronto : Doubleday Canada, 1978. x, 221 pages
 

Robert Ziegler   |   1943 –   |   to Canada in 1969

Robert Ziegler. The draft dodgers dues : a banquet of crow : an autobiography. Victoria, B.C. : Trafford, 2006. 425 pages
 

Suggestions for additions are welcome. For contact information see  Joseph Jones

Section for Individual Resisters established November 2021
 
Last updated 24 November 2021
 
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