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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