When American Joshua Key signed up to join the United States military in 2002, he did it to give his family a normal life.
That goal was still foremost in his mind about a year later, when he stepped off the back of a tank in Iraq and witnessed two American soldiers kicking the heads of fallen Iraqis around like soccer balls.
"That was the turning point for me," said Key. "I just got back in the tank and said I will not be a party to this."
The head-kicking occurrence happened about two-thirds of the way through his tour of duty in Iraq.
Key said he held on and did what he had to do until he came home in November 2003.
Once home he vowed he would never return to Iraq.
Key and his wife Brandi (shown) were at Algoma University College last night to talk about American war resisters like himself and to appeal to Canadians for help.
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Their visit was part of the official launch of the New Democratic Youth of Canada's national War Resisters Campaign. aimed at convincing the Canadian Government to grant sanctuary to American servicemen and women who object to the war in Iraq.
Audience members were told last night that Josh suffers from severe posttraumatic stress disorder because of the events he witnessed and was forced to participate in while stationed in Iraq. Because of his condition and because of the estimated 8,000 or more American war resisters like him. the Keys and others are calling for changes to the Immigration Act of Canada.
"The war in Iraq is illegal," Josh said. "We are hoping people of Canada will stand up and say war resisters are welcome here."
Last stop before his immigration hearing
Algoma U was stop 69 on the Keys' speaking tour, which began July 9.
It's also the last stop before their Canadian immigration hearing on September 2.
Others applying for refuge status in Canada on the grounds that the war in Iraq is illegal have been turned down, Brandi said.
The Keys hope they'll be the first to be accepted.
"Josh is the first [of the applicants] to have actually gone to Iraq," Brandi told the group of mostly young people assembled in the Doc Brown Lounge.
"They [Canadian immigration officials] sort of said that the reason Hinzman didn't get it [refuge status] was because he never actually went to Iraq," she said.
'I will go to another country and fight like hell if I have to'
Josh hopes the Keys will be the first family allowed to stay here refugees from the war on Iraq.
"But, I will not be the in the history books for being sent back to go to jail in America as a coward and a deserter," he said. "I will go to another country and fight like hell from there if I have to, but I will not go back to America to go to jail."
Josh and Brandi have four children aged six, five and three years, as well as a 18-month-old baby who was born while the family was in hiding in the United States.
When Josh couldn't sleep for the nightmares during his time at home after his first tour of duty in Iraq, he and his wife talked about their options.
'We took our three small children and we ran'
"I called my JAG officer to see if there was anything he could do to help keep me from going back to Iraq," Josh recalls.
"He told me I had two choices, either go back to Iraq or go to jail. My very pregnant wife and I made up a third. We took our three small children and we ran."
Josh used the techniques he learned while in the army to avoid government officials and military police from the time he went AWOL in November 2003, until they crossed the border into Canada at Niagara Falls on March 8 2005.
"I was so nervous at the border," he said.
'Customs waved us on our way without looking at our ID'
Brandi said that the border guard just asked what country they were citizens of, why they were coming to Canada and why they had so much baggage.
"Meanwhile we were watching them tear apart the car in front of us," said Josh.
"I told them we were only staying a few weeks but had a lot of stuff because we have four small kids," said Brandi. "The guard just waved us on our way without even looking at our identification and told us to have a nice visit."
"It didn't really sink in that we had actually made it into Canada until we were driving into Toronto," said Josh. "Toronto is really big and kind of frightening."
Especially to small-town Americans like Josh and Brandi.
Recruiters like used-car salesmen
Their hometown in the US has only about 10,000 souls.
But rest assured, there's a recruiting station there.
"You wouldn't find one in Palm Springs or Hollywood, I bet," Josh said.
According to Brandi, the recruiters back home were like used-car salesmen.
"They find out what you're looking for and tell you that you'll get it if you sign up," she said. "For Josh, it was a chance to make a good life for his family. For his buddy it was a chance to see the world. For another guy it might be the chance to get an education, to go to college."
"And I believed it, too," Brandi said. "If Josh hadn't come home and told me about the things going on in Iraq I would still be there, probably even helping to recruit."
'I wasn't protecting Americans. I was protecting my President's business interests'
Brandi said that her own family still believes the war in Iraq is about terrorists and weapons, because the media is controlled and because people are kept afraid.
"I wasn't protecting Americans from terrorists over there," said Josh. "I was protecting my President's business interests."
"In all the hundred or more homes I raided there were never any terrorists," said Josh. "There were never any caches of weapons."
"There were only angry women and children left who blamed us for taking away their husbands, fathers, brothers and uncles."
"They didn't see the American government in their houses at night," he said. "They saw us and I saw hate in their eyes."
Josh's greatest regret about America's time in Iraq so far is Fallujah, the city where he saw American soldiers desecrating Iraqi dead.
"I remember thinking how beautiful the river looked in the moonlight that night," he said.
"The tank I was riding in came around a bend in the road and I saw a line of bodies on one side of the road and a line of heads on the other."
"Fallujah was beautiful," Josh said. "And now it is gone. Utterly destroyed. It was a beautiful city full of families. It seemed like that city was there forever and now it is gone."
"It is a great loss to the whole world."
Now, he and Brandi are looking forward to settling on Gabriel Island in British Columbia and letting their two oldest kids start school on September 6.
"They used to think motels were home," said Brandi. "Now I just want them to have a normal life with school and friends and to grow up knowing they have choices."
But Josh isn't quite finished fighting yet.
He said that once they win the right to raise their family in Canada, he has one more battle to wage. "After he [the President] gets in trouble for lying, I will fight to go see my mother, but I will never live there again," he said. "I would rather be somewhere that I can fight injustices from."