Joline Martin

Disillusioned with the US involvement in the Vietnam War, Joline moved to Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada, in the early seventies. There, she discovered the beauty of the natural world and the importance of community. She had the privilege of living close to the Haida culture and learned a diverse set of values and the significance of the interconnectedness of the earth and its inhabitants. She worked in the school system, social services and mental health and addictions. Forty years later, she and her husband retired to the Comox Valley. With her, she brought an understanding of human dynamics and a deep compassion for people and poverty.

For the past ten years, Joline has been on the board of the Writers Society and a founding member and chair of the North Island Writers Conference. You can find her short stories in Island Writers Magazine, Comox Valley Collective and her personal story is in the BC Best Seller, Gumboot Girls. War Resisters: Standing Against the Vietnam War is her first book.

War Resisters: Standing Against the Vietnam War offers a contemporary perspective on the struggles and triumphs of the American Vietnam War resisters who resettled in Canada on Vancouver Island. This important collection of stories sheds light on an invisible minority, illustrating the courage it took for resisters to leave behind their friends, families, and communities with no certainty of return. Supporters on both sides of the 49th parallel showed compassion to the resisters by helping them escape the US draft and peacefully integrate into Canadian communities. In return, the resisters contributed to their newly adopted communities as farmers, teachers, caregivers, and more.

Through interviews with resisters, author Joline Martin shares previously untold stories about what it was like for them to start new lives on Vancouver Island all the while grappling with the consequences of their decisions to stand against the war. The resisters' stories blend with historical context to offer a deep and alternate insight into a time of political unrest in the United States. These stories challenge the long-held myths and assumptions about what it meant to be a Vietnam War resister. Edited by Lou Allison from the bestselling Gumboot series’, War Resisters pays homage to the legacy of this courageous community, not only in the lives they built but also in the generosity they continue to pay forward. Available from bookstores & Caitlin Press