Opposition Takes Bait - Hook Line & Sinker.......

Ronald Allen Smith is Harper's Willie Horton?

An insight into the poor soul those dastardly Americans want to make pay for his crime but who Dion, Layton and Doucette want to bring home .......where

Accused child molester freed on bail

Opposition MPs take up Montana death row case

Updated Thu. Nov. 22 2007 10:21 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

Stephane Dion has taken up the case of a Canadian man sitting on death row in Montana.

The Liberal leader has written the state's governor asking him to commute Ronald Allen Smith's death sentence.

Smith was convicted of murdering two people in 1982.

Dion says he wrote the letter because the Tory government has decided to ignore Canadian policy by refusing to officially appeal Smith's death sentence, which is outlawed in Canada.

"Canada abolished the death penalty 31 years ago," Dion said in question period on Thursday.

He said Canadian policy has been to ask foreign governments not to kill Canadian citizens facing death for crimes committed in their countries.

"That's why I wrote to the Governor of Montana today asking (that) he commute the death sentence against a Canadian there. Will the government do the same?"

The Tories recently said Canada would no longer call for clemency for Canadians facing the death penalty in democratic countries.

NDP Leader NDP Jack Layton has also sent a personal letter to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has started a petition he wants to send to Montana with the signatures of opposition MPs......

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson didn't accept opposition criticism that Canada's international human rights reputation is being harmed by the new Tory position.

Nicholson said that "individuals who commit multiple murders and mass-murders abroad . . . cannot necessarily count on the Canadian government to claim clemency and repatriation back to this country.''

But Dion argued that the Tories are walking away from Canadian principles.

"We are weakened as a nation when we fail to stand up for our fellow citizens who face such dire consequences," he said in a press release.

Smith says the death penalty is a punishment that should be left in the past.

"It's an unnecessary tool. In this day and age, it's an archaic idea that shouldn't be bought into," he told CTV Newsnet's The Verdict earlier this month.