hould we abolish h

March 24, in a speech in

House
ott Wop” Commons, Reid
id readi Danforth) moved
. ae. of a bill to

in "minal Code so as

real argument of
Which is ac-

Nced ;

pe nm favor of retain.

wh eee ment is based
; Called

ence. the theory

im ie theory that poten-

oan will stop to con-
1. pe auence of their
hende €y realize that if
:. and convicted they
ter pe and that this
Murder ™ from commit-

unmaiSdictions” where
Nishment has been

i
“ NO way supports

n,
Members will be inter-
8s ae of some of the
ace have abolished
n Whierment and the
‘ Hollace they decided to
Non, wd: 1860; Denmark
oe Way, 1876; Sweder

la

Sith Statistics indicate
t jider rate in Canada
per 100,000. In
Tate is .04; in
05; in Sweden,

'n
Ge ehMark ;
Setmany a 1.00 and in

Nit. is

These are, for the most part,
jurisditions where the death
penalty has been abolished for
about 100 years and in every
case except one the murder rate
is lower than it is in Canada,
while in the remaining case it
is no worse...

In six states of the U.S. which
have abolished the death pen-
alty, the figures for 1958 in-
dicate that the murder rate was
1.83 per 100,000. In the 42
states which retained it, the
murder ‘rate was 7.04. Again,
the available statistics indicate
that capital punishment has no
deterrent value at all...

Again, the death penalty is
highly discriminatory in nature.

‘Those most likely to die are the

poor, members of minority
groups, the unintelligent and
the friendless.

The warden at Sing Sing who
accompanied 149 men to the

death chamber reported that in

every case they were men who
had no money. More than half
of all those executed in the U.S.
are Negroes.

The death penalty does not
even begin to deal with the vast
majority of murders classified
as family murders cases
where a wife murders her hus-
band, or the husband murders
his wife, or one of them murd-
ers the children...

Only advocates

The only real advocates of
capital punishment are the
police, who claim it is a deter-
rent to planned murders...

In 1962, Ronald Turpin and

{ng Down Your Head and Die’

“a LONDON
EN an nearkable enough
eS Mdergraduate show
si theatre in Lon-
Beeteg end and is wide-
; as a “phenomenal
Yin a “the best new
Ven Own.”
te remarkable is
€ Bion. production
Nal Th University Ex-

Wi €atre Club is a

witty, entertaining,

att, -
Ment. ag On capital pun-

Iq. .

t right, the young
me devised “Hang
oe Head and Die,”
aking nBlish at Oxford
be his finals this
‘rector is Braham

th
» the Script went a vast
research. Royal
. Hanging
1 , uotations
iS a SPeeches oe the fa-
€ subject were
5 nd how astonish-
them proved to

cre a study of the
Q investi. of executions
eee tion into the
es that once

fo get vou hang-

ed — for “impersonating an
out-patient at Greenwich
Hospital,” for instance.

But all of it could not be
put into the show, not only
because of the length, but
simply because Lord Cob-
bold, the Lord Chamberlain,
would not allow it.

Cobbold, for instance, did
not even want a quotation
from the medical journal
Lancet, which said that on
the day of execution women
prisoners are given water-
proof underwear. —

The finished show gives
the facts about capital pun-
ishment and how it works.
Theatrically it uses a variety
of methods to drive home its
powerful, ironic attack on
capital punishment as a bar-
barian and cruel survival.

Nobody can sit through
this entertainment and only
be amused. One is faced in-
escapably with a choice of
views.

Some of the actors had
never been on the stage be-
fore. A number were sup-
porters of capital punishment
at the birth of the show. By
the end, they were convinced
opponents.

\

Arthur Lucas were hanged in
my own city of Toronto. The

next night, in the shadow of the

jail, a man was stabbed to
death. As I have said, all the
evidence indicates that the
death penalty as a deterrent to
murder is completely ineffec-
tives <4

Fewer favor it

It is significant that over the
years the number of people in
Canada who are in favor of
retaining the death penalty is
steadily declining. I believe the
latest figures, taken in 1962,
showed that only 47 percent
were still in favor of retaining
it. :

Also it seems to me... that
our governments should give
leadership in areas of reform,
rather than wait until a majority
of the population want some-
thing and then turn around and
agree with them... -

The first argument, of course,
in favor of abolishing the death
penalty is that all arguments
in favor of retaining it do not
stand up unless we are prepared
to admit that the real motive
is revenge; and if that is the
case, we have not really pro-
gressed very far from the day
when our ancestors dressed in
leopard skins and chased each
other around with clubs.

The other argument against
retaining capital punishment, of
course, is the impossibility of
rectifying a mistake, because the
dead cannot come back to life.

I know there are safeguards
in our jurisprudence—we are all
aware of them—but our juris-
prudence is administered by
human beings, not by calculat-
ing machines, and mistakes do
occur and there are cases of
innocent people being convicted.

I have in my hands a book by
Judge Jerome Frank in which
he outlines some 36 cases of
innocent people who were con-
victed ....

Capital punishment rules out
any hope of rehabilitation of the
criminal. Recent studies that
have been conducted in forensic
nsychiatry have indicated that

in many cases rehabilitation can

take place . .

I do not really have an oppor-
tunity to go into the final prob-
lem of capital punishment;
which is the whole question of
morals and ethics; to what ex-
tent the state has the right to
take a human life, under any
circumstaances,

Conscience crisis

Every time we have a hanging
in Canada, this country under-
goes a sort of crisis of consci-
ence, where-a man waits to die
and the whole nation debates
whether or not he shall die; and
it usually resolves into a tug-of-
war between the primitive pas-
sion of revenge and the social-
ized idea of compassion.

We kill, I think, largely from
revenge. I think we kill because

we fear, not because we think
these people are beyond rehabil-
itation. I think we kill in the
blind and futile hope that others
will not repeat the crime.

I think we do it because we
do not yet understand that mur-
der has its roots in the ills of
our society, poverty and ignor-
ance, lack of opportunity and
all the other ills with which we
try to deal in this Parliament.
I think we do it because as yet
we do not really respect human
life...

Respect life

I wonder to what extent a
society that takes human life
ean invest its citizens with re-
spect for human life. These, as
! say, are arguments that would
take a great deal of time to

*

bios AQ
Om ae h og 1!

mies

develop; they are matters
conscience ...

Face to future

It seems to me that the aboli-
tion of capital punishment is in
many ways a plea that we put
our backs to the past and try
to turn our faces to the future.
I think we are trying to estab-
lish a regard for human life that
does not exist at the present
time.

I think we are trying, essen-
tially, to argue for a time when
reasons of revenge and hatred
do not dictate our decisions, and
for a time when we learn some-
how through reason, judgment
and understanding, that all life
is worth saving and that com-
passion is the highest attribute
of our society.

100,000 young people
leave school each year

LL PARENTS are under-

standably anxious about the

future of their children, and
young people are naturally anxi-
ous about their own future.

Under capitalism, what’s in
store for the young people of
today?

An American insurance com-
pany recently gave some statis-
tics which show what happens
to 2l-year-olds starting out to
make their fortune. Out of every
hundred:

@ 16 will not live to the age
of 65;
@® | (at age 65) will have an
annual income of dver $10,-
_ 000;

® 3 will be making between
$5,000 and $10,000;

‘@ 32 will be earning from
$1,000 to $5,000; .

® 16 will be earning less than
$1,000; .

@ 32 will be destitute with no
Jobs.

Today in Canada some 100,-
900 young people leave school
each year to seek work. Most
of them have about nine years
general elucation, but lack spe-

cialized training and particular
skills.

Even in “boom” periods such
as Canada is experiencing at
present, such young people find
themselves “last to be hired,
first to be fired.” :

In the next few years auto-
mation is going to make it hard-
er than ever for young people
without particular skills to find
work in industry. And the lower-
paying types of work (service
industries) may well be the ones
hardest hit by automation.

Canada’s labor force (1961
census) was 6,471,850. The 15-
29 age group totalled 2,081,704;
that is, 32.2 percent, or roughly
one worker in every three.

Taking jobs wherever they
can find. them, many young
people today work in small pro-
duction shops, service and dis-
tributive industries without
union protection.

Trade unions have paid too
little attention to the problems
of youth. Yet youth could give
new life. to the trade union
movement, and play a big role
in helping to organize industries
that remain®as yet largely un-
organized

May 8, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5