Only once in the gradual erasure
of the death penalty in Canada has
the possibility of reversal presented
itself. In 1987, under the leadership
of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney,
the Progressive Conservatives tried to
hold a free vote for the reinstatement
of capital punishment. The bill was
rejected.

Many feared the loss of the
ultimate punishment would unleash
crime and destruction upon the
Canadian public. Contrary to
predictions, the homicide rate didn’t
increase after 1976.

According to statistics compiled
by Amnesty International, the homicide
rate in Canada began to fall for the next
20 years, reaching an all-time low of
1.9 per 100,000 in 1998.

The homicide conviction rate
nearly doubled in the decade after
abolition — some believe because
Canadians were more willing to convict
individuals when they weren’t required
to decide between life and death.

International abolition

The international community, like
Canada, has been moving towards
abolition since the mid-1940s.

In December 1948, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which
detailed the rights and freedoms of
individuals (of which the “right to life”
is one), was adopted and ratified.

 

Canadian death penalty abolitionist Robert Bickerdike

Since the declaration, 118 UN-
member states have abolished the
death penalty, and only 78 countries
and territories still retain it. The initial
declaration has sparked numerous
additional declarations, covenants,

media.

“Why would we now refuse to
intervene to protect a Canadian citizen
sentenced to death in an American
state, thereby effectively reinstating
capital punishment for Canadians?”

118 UN-member states have abolished the death penalty, and only 78
countries and territories still retain it

conventions, and optional protocols to
encourage the elimination of the death
penalty.

Throughout the international push
for abolition, Canada has always been
a solid backer. Canada has adopted
numerous resolutions to get rid of the
death penalty internationally and still
refuses to extradite people who will be
facing the death penalty upon return.

Ramifications

On the surface, the changes of
2007 seem minor. Harper has assured
Canadians that the death penalty is no
closer to coming back in Canada than it
ever was. But the ramifications of our
non-interference internationally may be
greater than they seem.

After the Conservatives’ decision
not to advocate on behalf of Ronald
Smith, Irwin Cotler, a McGill professor,
ex-minister of justice, and international
human rights lawyer, spoke out to the

he asked when interviewed by the
Associated Press.

Alex Neve, secretary general of
Amnesty International Canada, heaped
criticism on the decision, telling the
CBC that Canada was adopting a role
as an “active bystander,” and pointing
out the international effects the decision
would have on Canada’s reputation as
an upholder of human rights.

Dan McTeague, one-time secretary
to the minister of foreign affairs and
an influential player in the release of
William Sampson in 2003, who faced
beheading in Saudi Arabia after being
accused of planting a bomb under a car,
openly criticized the double-standard
set up by the Conservatives.

“Foreign policy is always a mirror
of our domestic values,” he told the
Associated Press.

Critics see the contradiction
exposed by McTeague as the sticking
point. It’s not weak to have tough

 

Stephen Harper and former UN Secretery General Kofi Annan

standards for Canadian criminals while
still protecting them from punishment
abroad that is deemed too inhumane
and abhorrent to be practiced in
Canada.

It is, however, inconsistent to
condemn a practice ethically and
legally at home, but condone it when
another nation perpetrates it. The grey
areas introduced by such nebulous
and undefined terms as “democratic
country” serve to endanger Canadians
whose lives may hang in the balance.

Where historically, Canadian
intervention in another nation’s
decision to use the death penalty
was standard, it has now become a
judgment of that nation’s commitment
to democracy or the state of their legal
system.

Conservative MP Stockwell Day
asked the media: “[Why] intervene to
bring murderers who have received due
process in democratic countries back to
Canada?”

But as Lorne Waldman, a member
of legal team for Maher Arar—a
Canadian imprisoned in the U.S.
Guantanamo Bay — pointed out after
the Smith affair: “You don’t create
policy based upon one individual case.
[The death penalty is] either acceptable
in all cases or it’s not acceptable. And
if we reject it, we reject it for everyone,
even the most difficult cases.”

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