Grits blast Tory reversal on death-penalty policy
Updated: Thu. Nov. 1 2007 6:34 PM ET
The Conservative government said it will no longer appeal on behalf of Canadians facing death sentences in other democratic countries. But the opposition says this is a return to the party's far-right agenda.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced in the House of Commons Thursday that he will not plead for clemency for Albertan Ronald Allen Smith, who faces lethal injection for the 1982 murders of two men in Montana.
"We will not actively pursue bringing back to Canada murderers who have been tried in a democratic country that supports the rule of law," Day said. "It would send a wrong message. We want to preserve public safety here in Canada."
A spokesperson for Day said he would not be commenting further on the announcement.
"The answer is clear, no matter if you agree or not, but his answer in the House today answers all the questions," the public safety minister's spokesperson Melissa Leclerc told CTV.ca Thursday.
But the opposition is accusing Day of reversing the policy without a discussion in Parliament.
"You have to recognize that the roots and beginnings of the current Conservative crop that's in cabinet essentially are the Reform Alliance Party," Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh told CTV.ca Thursday.
He added that many of those people "supported the death penalty in their philosophical meanderings."
There has not been a state-sanctioned execution in Canada since 1962, and the nation has long-held a position against the death penalty, Dosanjh said.
"This government, by stealth, is changing that long-standing policy to Canada to protect Canadians against the death-penalty abroad," Dosanjh said.
He added that Canada's policy not to extradite people to countries where they may face capital punishment without guarantees they would not be executed could be the next domestic law to be reversed.
"You have a wholesale change of law to capital punishment without any debate whatsoever in Parliament."
Liberal MP Dan McTeague charged that the foreign policy shift was undemocratic.
"Canada is a democratic nation, and it has expressed itself democratically many times on the issue. Mr. Harper does not have the authority to proceed on this," McTeague told CTV.ca Thursday.
"This is amateur night in the Conservative party in terms of foreign policy, he said. "I would have expected that in Mr. Harper's attempt to try to be moderate on issues, he's obviously tipped his hand here and showed that he's back to the old Reform messages."
Canada has a history in the United Nations of championing the cause of abolishing capital punishment, McTeague said.
"This is about changing foreign policy to a position that does not reflect the Canadian stance on capital punishment in any shape, way or form," McTeague said.
Smith was convicted for killing two Aboriginal men while hitchhiking through Montana in 1982. He is the only Canadian currently on death row in the U.S.
Relatives of the two men, Harvey Mad Man, 23' and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, have pleaded with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer not to commute Smith's sentence.
Smith personally requested the death penalty, before later appealing the decision, asking for a life sentence.
Schweitzer said he is undecided about whether to commute his sentence.
"Because of Day's sudden change of heart, or because of the change in strategy, it may very well have sealed Mr. Smith's fate," McTeague said.
McTeague said the Conservatives have not brought the policy change to parliament, nor moved a motion to abandon the country's stance discouraging Capital punishment.
"Mr. Harper and Mr. Day are trying to accomplish indirectly that which they have no authority to do directly," McTeague said.
With files from The Canadian Press
