This is an odd story. Perhaps it was a foolish offhand remark of Senator Boisvenu. If so, well, we all say dumb things.
On the other hand if the remark was serious it shows a remarkable lack of insight into punishment. Suicide is usually a tragic end of a mental illness. The death penalty, while highly problematic, is still a punishment within the range of penalties intended to deter crime. Suicide is not punishment.
Encouraging suicide is not justice.
Toronto SUN http://bit.ly/AsV5pD
OTTAWA - A Conservative senator is in hot water for saying Wednesday that murderers should be given a rope in their cell in case they want to hang themselves.
Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, who sits on the Senate legal committee, made the controversial comments while talking to reporters before the Conservative caucus meeting.
"I think of (Clifford) Olson," he said. "I think of the people who were serial killers who have no chance of rehabilitation. I think, in the end, each murderer should have the right to a rope in his cell. He could decide his fate. But I'm against the death penalty."
13 comments:
Excuse me but this guy had his daughter raped and killed.
I'm surprised he didn't go further.
Are you telling me Morton that this guy has to be politically correct??
He has no freedom of speech Morton?
Or is he just a bigot and not as enlightened as you and your Marxist friends?
I agree with you Morton, suicide is always tragic. However, considering what this man went through, he spoke like a human being.
Remember Michael Dukakis?
He was given a hypothetical from Bernard Shaw, eerily similar to what Sen. Boisvenu went through. He gave a answer that many saw cost him the election.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1844704_1844706_1844712,00.html
Dear Anon: Your first four points were spot on. Why did you have to ruin it with the ad hominem ending?
Fair points, except the Marxist bit which I always find weird. I suppose the truth is the Senator is there as a legislator and not a criminal expert. Still, and here I may be going off the rails a bit, suicide is a coward's way out. Viz Hitler etc -- a way to avoid justice. That said, I have seen too many suicides and my thinking is they should generally be discouraged. If the death penalty is on the table let's look at it openly. I oppose it and can say why -- but that's another post.
However, a 2010 Angus Reid survey of global attitudes on capital punishment found that 62 per cent of Canadians endorsed the death penalty for homicide convictions
Sarah Smiley got a link to that survey?
"Why did you have to ruin it with the ad hominem ending?"
Morton knows who Saul Alinsky is. I'm just playing the cards back to the main players.
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) was an Jewish American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing, and has been compared to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left." He is often noted for his book Rules for Radicals.
In the course of nearly four decades of political organizing, Alinsky received much criticism, but also gained praise from many public figures. His organizing skills were focused on improving the living conditions of poor communities across North America. In the 1950s, he began turning his attention to improving conditions of the African-American ghettos, beginning with Chicago's and later traveling to other ghettos in California, Michigan, New York City, and a dozen other "trouble spots".
His ideas were later adapted by some U.S. college students and other young organizers in the late 1960s and formed part of their strategies for organizing on campus and beyond.Time magazine once wrote that "American democracy is being altered by Alinsky's ideas," and conservative author William F. Buckley said he was "very close to being an organizational genius."
There's a theme here. What does Marx and Alinsky have in common? Perhaps they are Cosmopolitans?
or perhaps Anonymous needs help
Here's your poll Gene Rayburn
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/38156/us_britain_and_canada_endorse_death_penalty/
Is this another one of those topics Liberals want to muzzle Canadians on....
What hypocrits, you rail about democracy and Harper muzzling MPs, but people can only talk about what YOU decide.
Maybe that's part of why the LPC is #3
Pickton, Bernardo , Clifford Olson ....
"What does Marx and Alinsky have in common?"
Ask the Marxists here in Canada who use Alnsky style tactics to silence and intimate its critics.
Its funny how the Marxists and the alinsky's always come out to defend their heroes.
LOL.
"and has been compared to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left."
Comparing Thoams Paine to Saul ALinsky?
LOL.
You must be a hardcore University student or a hardcore government worker.
Either way, you are an enemy of freedom and liberty and I consider you as such.
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