Grieving mother, activist seek Canadian haven for U.S. army deserters

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http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=n042161A

OTTAWA (CP) - Celeste Zappala says her son Sherwood Baker had no idea what he was getting himself into when he joined the Pennsylvania National Guard eight years ago.

A teacher, disc jockey and musician when he enlisted, Baker never thought he'd be called up for overseas duty with U.S. military forces, she said. The National Guard, he assumed, was for natural disasters and the like. "Recruiters are very persuasive - always promising college support and extra money," she said.

But last March, Sgt. Sherwood Baker was called up and sent to Iraq. On April 26, an officer arrived on Zappala's doorstep to say her son had been killed by an explosion in Baghdad.

Now Zappala wants Canada, a country she calls a staunch defender of human rights, to open its doors to U.S. service people who refuse to go to Iraq and abandon their units.

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