April 1, 2011

Heartfelt War Resister, Chuck Wiley, speaks from Halifax

U.S. War Resister Chuck Wiley from Glen Canning on Vimeo.


Glen Canning:

Shot 19 March 2011 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I let Chuck do the talking in this edit. It's longer than what I usually allow for a news video but I thought it would be fair to let him say what he needed to say.

About Chuck Wiley:


Chuck Wiley is a member of a family with deep military roots: one of his ancestors was a Revolutionary War soldier, and every generation since has had a member who has been proud to defend his country. Until February 2007, Chuck was no exception. Chuck entered the U.S. Army before he had even finished high school. He was in the Navy as a nuclear engineering technician and rose to a supervisory position on the USS Enterprise. In May 2006, the USS Enterprise was deployed as part of Operation: Iraqi Freedom, to provide air support off the coast for troops on the ground in Iraq and carrying out bombing and surveillance missions at their request. This was his first deployment as a Chief Petty Officer; this rank allowed him access to a new range of information about what was happening in Iraq. Chuck says, "Much of this information troubled me on a personal level." He returned to the United States with his ship in November 2006. The ship would be redeployed to Iraq, but Chuck made the decision not to go and was reprimanded for open discussion of his concerns about the war with others in his crew, and threatened with the charge of sedition. So on February 11, 2007, Chuck and his partner Jamie discreetly left Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia and came to Canada.

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