When Jill Hart's husband fled to Canada, rather than return to Iraq, she considered helping the army lure him back to America. "I would have turned him in because it's the right thing to do". But she was shocked when the army asked her to pretend to have been; "severely sexually assaulted" so that her husband would return. Instead, she joined him in Canada, where he is now applying for refugee status. The maximum penalty in America for desertion is still death by firing squad. Soldiers are routinely threatened with long periods in prison for going AWOL. "Soldiers who desert are in violation of their contract with the American people", reasons Lt Col Tallman. "It's not a soldier's prerogative to determine which wars he or she will fight". But deserters in Canada claim that it was love of their country and frustration at the unjustified war in Iraq which led to them going AWOL. As Pat Hart states; "I am prepared to fight and die for a just cause but I won't be a corporate mercenary".