Session: 123456789101112131415161718         Page 527528529530531532533534535536537538539540541542543544545546548549550551552553554555556557558559560561562563564565566 of 617

Toronto and Montreal. I went up there with David Brown, who was then my counsel and administrative assistant; spent two days there, talked in that period of time to about 40 American draft resisters and deserters. I came back and I held a press conference here in this very office at 26 Federal Plaza on New Year's Day and by chance, there was an enormous snow storm so that only one reporter came. I thought it would be the biggest thing I'd ever been involved in. “Here I am -- I'm back from Canada, fellows. I want to tell you about the draft resisters.” One person came. He was the AP reporter, and when he walked in and he takes off his coat, and he's loaded with ice -- he's an icicle -- he says to me, “Your middle name must be Lucky.” He was the only reporter. So I hold this exclusive press conference for the AP reporter. But the issue was so important, it got tremendous coverage on his report.

I said that we had to find a way to permit the draft resisters to return without punitive action. At that time I was not talking about the deserters -- they were too controversial. And there weren't very many deserters that were involved. My recollection is that the figure on desertion either at that time or later was about 8% of the people in Canada who had left the United States. And I must say I don't frankly have the same feeling about deserters as I do with respect to draft resisters. It's an irrational feeling, because you can make out