[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 8




CANADA:

No to death penalty


I've noticed that people are not paying much attention to the policy shift
the Tories made with respect to Canada's stance on the death penalty.

Putting aside the rhetoric of Canada itself bringing back the death
penalty, what the government has done is to allow every country that
currently imposes the death penalty to execute Canadians convicted of
crimes in that country and ignore any pleas for clemency that Canada could
have made on behalf of Canadian citizens.

The government, in saying that they will not oppose the death sentence for
any Canadian who is convicted and sentenced in a fair trial in a
democratic country, have unwittingly put us in the position where we can
not oppose the death penalty anywhere in the world.

Countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, who are still frequent users of
the death penalty, no longer have any reason to pay any attention to
Canada, to spare Canadians sentenced to death in their countries. Why
would any nation that supports the death penalty bother giving us any
attention if Canada allows countries like Japan and the U.S. to kill
Canadian citizens without question?

>From the Saudi or Chinese point of view, they conduct fair trials and hand
out fair sentences much in the same way the U.S. and Japan do. So how can
we justify asking these countries for special treatment for our citizens?

There are still 70 countries that have the death penalty. The Tories have
effectively made those nations more dangerous for Canadians travelling
abroad by having this 2-tier stance.

Peter Zankl, Ottawa

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Ottawa Citizen)