A tough-on-crime Conservative senator said murderers should be provided with the tools to kill themselves in jail.
“Each assassin should have the right to a rope in his cell to make a decision about his or her life,” senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu told reporters ahead of a meeting of the Conservative caucus on Wednesday.
Mr. Boisvenu said the government will not reopen the debate on the death penalty, although he raised questions about the fate of serial killers and those without any hope of being rehabilitated.
“I’m against the death penalty, but in horrible cases such as [serial killer Clifford] Olson, can we have a reflection on that issue?” said the senator who was appointed to the Upper Chamber by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009.
Mr. Boisvenu said that, in addition to the lack of a potential rehabilitation, there are also economic issues at play when considering the issue of the death penalty. He pointed specifically to the recent conviction of three members of the Shafia family – the father, the mother and one of their sons – who were found guilty on Sunday of four “honour” killings.
“Their incarceration will cost $10-million to the Canadian government. There is an economic problem there, it’s $10-million that won’t be spent elsewhere, that is being spent on criminals,” he said.
Mr. Boisvenu said that, instead of using the death penalties against the Afghan-born Shafias, “returning them to their country might be a tougher sentence than to keep them here, where our prisons are a lot more comfortable.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said afterward that it will not reopen the debate over the death penalty, and Mr. Boisvenu told all-news LCN channel that he regretted his statement.
Mr. Boisvenu’s comments come after two high-profile suicides in Quebec. Paul Laplante, who was recently charged with the 2008 murder of his wife in 2008, was found dead at a prison in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Que., last month, ahead of his trial.
A few days later, Kathrine Dufresne, who was charged with murdering her adopted daughter last year, also killed herself in a prison cell in Gatineau, Que.
There has been much controversy in Quebec after doctor Guy Turcotte was found not criminally responsible for the double slaying of his five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.
Mr. Boisvenu is the founding president of the Murdered or Missing Persons’ Families Association. He established the group after his 27-year-old daughter, Julie, was abducted, raped and murdered by a repeat offender in 2002. He has also worked in senior positions in the Quebec public service.
Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: daniel leblanc
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