Tom Joad

For Those Who Seek Peace and Justice

Brandon Hughey

Brandon HugheyBrandon Hughey fled the United States and is in Canada seeking refugee status. 
Hughey, a San Angelo, Texas native and 2003 Central High School graduate, fled his Army unit before it shipped out to Iraq in March. It was, he says, his obligation to leave.
"I feel that if a soldier is given an order that he knows to not only be illegal, but immoral as well, then it his responsibility to refuse that order," he wrote in response to e-mailed questions from the San Angelo Standard-Times. "It is also my belief that if a soldier is refusing an order he knows to be wrong, it is not right for him to face persecution for it."
"If you were given an order to participate in an unlawful occupation that is resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people with no justifiable cause, would you be able to live with yourself if you carried out that order?" he wrote in his e-mail to the Standard-Times.

Brandon had his hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board in June 2005. His claim was rejected and he, along with Jeremy Hinzman, sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. On November 15, 2007 this request was turned down. Brandon and the dozens of other resisters who have sought refuge in Canada must now wait to see if the House of Commons will adopt a motion that would let them stay in Canada.