Canada to review soldier's asylum

2009-11-21 14:14

Ottawa - A Canadian court on Friday ordered the country's refugee board to review the rejected asylum application of a lesbian US soldier who claimed her sexual orientation had prompted death threats.

Private Bethany Smith, 21, claimed she was the victim of verbal and physical harassment by fellow soldiers and said she had asked the US military for a discharge after being outed by another soldier who spotted her walking hand in hand with another woman.
 
Judge Yves de Montigny ordered the Canadian immigration panel that in February rejected her request - believed to be the first by a lesbian or gay American soldier - to review the claim, saying mistakes were made by the board such as dismissing evidence that gays face harassment in the US military.

Smith's request for discharge from the US military was denied because her superiors wanted to send her to Afghanistan, she has told Canadian media.

'Don't ask, don't tell' policy

In deferring the case until she returned from Afghanistan, the US military broke its so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy of discharging openly gay members, Smith contends.

In 2007 the Canadian immigration panel rejected her refugee claim but in September Smith appealed to the federal court to overturn the tribunal's decision.

According to reports, the soldier claimed she was badgered daily and received more than 100 threatening notes on her dormitory door, including death threats.

Before fleeing to Canada, she served at Fort Campbell in the southern US state of Kentucky, where a gay soldier was beaten to death in 1999. She never went to Afghanistan.

Since the start of the war in Iraq, an estimated 200 US war resisters have sought asylum in Canada, and are still living in this country. None of them has yet to secure refugee status.

- AFP