Nelson city council has passed a resolution aimed at putting an end to the growing controversy over a proposed monument to American draft dodgers.

At a special meeting on Wednesday, council decided that there would be no public money or public land for a monument unless it had broad public support in the community.


Proposed monument
A statement released by the city states that the planned monument to war resisters doesn't meet that criteria. And it says such a monument would be a "misuse of public funds."

A private Nelson-based group called "Our Way Home" announced plans three weeks ago to build the monument somewhere in the city.

But that proposal has drawn strong opposition from some local residents and many Americans, especially veterans' groups.

A spokesperson for "Our Way Home" now says the monument will only be built in a community happy to have it – which won't be Nelson.

The monument had been slated to be part of a weekend festival planned for the Nelson area in July 2006.

As many as 125,000 young Americans fled to Canada in the 1960s and 70s to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War, with thousands of them settling in B.C.