A Global Moritorium on the Death Penalty

 
The United Nations Human Rights Commission has voted every year from 1998 to 2005 on a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. Canada has been a sponsor of this resolution every single time along with countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Australia and 71 other countries. I'm proud of Canada's leadership on this important issue.

This leadership is about to end according to CTV [Feds won't sponsor UN anti-death-penalty resolution].

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government will not co-sponsor a United Nations resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty, breaking with a nearly decade-old tradition.

An official with the Foreign Affairs Department says Canada will vote in favour of the resolution when it comes to the floor of the UN General Assembly in December, but will not sponsor it.

"There are a sufficient number of co-sponsors already, and we will focus our efforts on co-sponsoring other resolutions within the UN system which are more in need of our support,'' said Catherine Gagnaire.

Yeah, right. This represents a substantial shift in policy for the Canadian government. It's consistent with another change recently announced whereby Canada will no longer oppose the execution of Canadian citizens in foreign countries.

Last week, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day surprised the House of Commons by announcing that Canada will not oppose the execution of a Canadian citizen on death row in Montana for two murders. Day said the new policy will apply to "murderers'' such as Ronald Allen Smith who have had a fair trial in a democratic country. (Doesn't the idea of Stockwell Day as "Public Safety Minister" just want to make you cry? )

The government has not specified which countries it considers democracies.

One of those countries is surely the United States of America. A country that executes Canadian citizens and has voted against the UN Human Rights resolution every single time.

The UN resolution has never passed thanks to the USA and other nations that still have a death penalty (e.g. Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia). Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976 and there haven't been any executions in this country since 1962. Let's hope Stephen Harper doesn't try and bring back the death penalty remove us from the list of enlightened liberal democracies.

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[Photo Credit: see Abolish the Death Penalty for the significance of the photo.]

[Hat Tip: Canadian Cynic, Harper, Porcine Copulater]