noahbody

A relevant case would be that of Huseyin Celil. Harper going to bat for someone facing the death penalty. And getting criticized for it.

The idea had been discussed with the Montana governor.

I'm sure they'll try. The only problem is that the Harper government voted in favour of a moratorium on capital punishment and Harper has said he has no intention on reopening the debate. I'm expecting Dion will likely announce he wants to bring Smith home to Canada to live among the Taliban prisoners. Give him a week.

Really this situation isn't too hard to get your head around. The death penalty issue isn't black or white. There are a variety of reasons you can be against it such as fear of a David Milgaard incident, the belief that our justice system should reform, not punish and the belief that no one has the right to take another person's life. You need not embrace all of these reasons to be against the death penalty. I would suggest Harper believes Canada's stance on crime has been soft and its stance against the death penalty has been vague. The government's comment "it would send the wrong message" means Canada doesn't support the death penalty because an innocent person like Milgaard could be killed, but not because it doesn't believe in punishment. They want to take a tough stance on crime. As far as them having a survey that included capital punishment, they likely wanted to know where Canadians stood. In one post you accuse them of being in contempt of democracy, now you criticize them for seeking out the views of Canadians. If all you look for is a hidden agenda, it's all you'll see.

If less than one percent is accurate, you could save an innocent life by keeping 100 or so murderers in jail. I'm not sure if Smith, someone who just wanted to know what it was like to kill, is a good candidate to put back on the streets, ever.

Stands to reason that if you argue against the death penalty in order to protect the possibility of an innocent being killed, you should be against letting a convicted murderer out for the same reason. Or is that risk acceptable?

Because Schweitzer is the governor of Montana. And he and Canadian officials had discussed bringing Smith back to Canada. And both the governor and Smith's lawyer commented on Smith serving out a Canadian life sentence.

Not in Canada. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:0cBzeT...t=clnk&cd=1

Once again, this has to do with murderers. A lot of the speculation on this thread is due to a statement from the media, not the government. The government has clearly stated "murderers."

Didn't you mean to say you can't be 100% certain in every single case?

I think you left out "in every single case." Or do you think someone else put the heads in Dahmer's fridge and he just didn't notice they were there?

Number of statements above that are relevant: 0

"Harper said Friday that while he doesn't want to reopen the capital-punishment debate in Canada, he also doesn't want to start a debate on whether his government is willing to repatriate convicted murderers. "We have no desire to open the debate on capital punishment here in Canada and likewise we have no desire to participate in the debate on capital punishment in the United States," he said at a news conference in Halifax, where he was speaking to an aboriginal group. "Were we to intervene, it would very quickly become a question of whether we are prepared to repatriate a double-murderer to Canada," he said." http://canadianpress.google.com/article/AL...QVm85xw8v4IsM5w

Canadians elect governments to govern and to get things done, not to lobby other countries to adopt their laws. This is about government policy, not law and has nothing to do with contempt of democracy.

Has Canada ever declared that capital punishment is "cruel and unusual treatment?" I think if you look back to the last time there was a vote on capital punishment in this country you might be surprised at the majority opinion of the population.

What you're quoting is a news article; not a press release. I believe this was announced publicly in the House by Day. As noted, he very clearly stated "murderers."

Did you miss the word "murderer" in Day's statement? We're not talking about marijuana seed growers or homosexuals in Iran as you brought up earlier. That's ridiculous.

The chances of Smith being sent to Canada are absolute zero. This is reality. All Canada accomplishes by trying to bring Smith 'home' is creating further pain and sorrow for the victims' families. We owe Smith nothing. He deserves no one's support.

I don't know where you read that but the fine print said *unless you murder someone.

If Alberta separated, there wouldn't be any money for Quebec.

Murder.

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What I said was "if justice isn't served...." The minimum definition of justice in Smith's case would be life in prison, likely without nintendo.

When justice isn't served, we make it acceptable to have violence within the state.