Capital punishment in Canada dates back to 1759 in its days as a British colony. Before Canada eliminated the death penalty for murder on July 14, 1976, 1,481 people were sentenced to death, with 710 executed. Of those executed, 697 were men and 13 were women. The only method used in Canada for capital punishment in nonmilitary contexts was hanging. The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962, at Toronto's Don Jail.
On June 30, 1987, a bill to restore the death penalty was defeated by the House of Commons in a close 148-127 vote, in which Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Minister of External Affairs Joe Clark opposed the bill, whereas Deputy Prime Minister Donald Mazankowski and a majority of Progressive Conservative MPs supported it.
Read more about Capital Punishment In Canada: History, Military Executions, Last People Executed in Canada, Method, Executions and The Public, Canadian Policy and Capital Punishment in Foreign Countries
Famous quotes containing the words capital punishment, capital, punishment and/or canada:
“Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“A good many have been thrown out on their broad capital bases.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Sleep is a reward for some, a punishment for others. For all, it is a sanction.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–70)
“Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)