James Loney (peace activist)

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For the American baseball player, see James Loney (baseball player).

James Loney

Born	1964
Residence	Toronto
Nationality	Canadian
Religious beliefs	Roman Catholic
Partner	Dan Hunt

James Loney (born 1964) is a Canadian peace activist who has worked for several years with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq and Palestine. On November 26, 2005, he was kidnapped in Iraq with three CPT members, leading to a widely publicized hostage crisis.

On March 23, 2006, Loney was freed in a clandestine operation by multinational troops. While Loney was held as a hostage, his family and husband Dan Hunt withheld the fact of his homosexuality out of fear for his safety. The media was aware of this fact but cooperated in keeping it secret.^[1]

He made a brief media appearance on March 30: "I'll take things slowly until I can get through a day without shaking legs and a pounding heart," he said.

Loney was born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. During his late teens he worked as a counsellor at Columbus Boys' Camp near Orillia, Ontario, on Lake Simcoe. This is a summer camp for underprivileged boys, funded by the Knights of Columbus and staffed by senior high school students from various schools run by the Basilian Fathers.

Loney lives in Amos House, which is part of the Toronto Catholic Worker; a community formed in 1991 which now consists of six households on one block, including two Houses of Hospitality (including Zaccheus House, the primary hospitality house which Jim and his partner Dan helped to found) and several support houses for the Houses of Hospitality.^{[citation needed]}

1 After release
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] After release

In June 2006 Loney entered headlines again for joining in the protest against the controversial use of security certificates to detain foreign residents in Canada for years without charges or trial.^[2]

According to a November 11, 2006 report in the Guelph Mercury of a speech he'd given to university students on November 9, Loney refused to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day. Loney claimed that it "says we have to be ready for the next time - vigilance." A Royal Canadian Legion spokesperson is quoted in the same report saying, "It's his choice not to wear a poppy .... The poppy is the symbol of remembrance, to remember people who gave their lives .... When you look at terrorism, pacifism doesn't work. He found out firsthand."^{[citation needed]}

On June 2006, Loney publicly accused the Ontario Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, with homosexual discrimination, a claim which was refuted by them.^[3]

Canadian singer-songwriter, Jon Brooks, wrote two songs on Jim Loney on his CD Ours And The Shepherds in response to the controversy. 'Jim Loney's Prayer Part I' and 'Jim Loney's Prayer Part II' were chosen as bookends to the track list on a CD about Canadian war stories.

On May 23 2007 James released a public statement saying that he would not be testifying against his captors who are now in U.S. custody citing the lack of transparency in Iraqi courts, the limited access to lawyers and the death penalty. “I recently informed the RCMP that I will not testify. I cannot participate in a judicial process where the prospects of a fair trial are negligible, and more crucially, where the death penalty is a possibility.”^{[citation needed]}