A majority of Canadians believe that murderers should deserve the death penalty, as attitudes shift concerning capital punishment.
The number of Canadians who support capital punishment for murderers has now reached 57% across the country.
A recent poll by Research Co. showed that 35% of Canadians moderately or strongly oppose the death penalty for murderers, while 9% of respondents were not sure.
The survey shows that half of Canadians who support reinstating the death penalty believe that it will serve as a deterrent for potential murderers. Half of Canadians also believe that “a convicted murderer has taken a life, so the death penalty fits the crime.”
Other reasons include saving the taxpayers money, as opposed to having murderers rot in prison with 48% of Canadians expressing this view.
A similar percentage, 47%, also said that capital punishment would provide closure to the victim’s families. However, only 28% said that murderers cannot be rehabilitated.
While total police-reported crime rates per 100,000 people have increased by 8.3% in Canada between 2015 and 2022, violent crimes have increased by 23.4%, according to Statistics Canada.
The severity of such crimes has increased notably as well.
The crime severity index, which accounts for both the volume and severity of crimes, has increased from 70.4 in 2015 to 78.1 in 2022. However, the violent crime severity index has risen from 75.3 to 97.7. The non-violent crime severity index has increased by just over five points.
Research Co. conducted a similar poll in March 2023. Since then, support for the death penalty for murderers has increased by three points. This increase mirrored 2023’s three-point rise from 2022.
Mario Canseco, President of Research Co., highlighted the differences in support for capital punishment based on who respondents support politically. Conservatives (69%) were more likely to support re-introducing the death penalty, followed by Liberals (56%) and NDP voters (49%).
Despite the majority support for reintroducing the death penalty, the preferences of Canadians reveal a nuanced stance when presented with a direct choice between capital punishment and life imprisonment without parole.
Despite support for re-introducing the death penalty, most respondents preferred dishing out life sentences when given the option. Faced with these sentencing options for convicted murderers, 55% of Canadians leaned towards life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, contrasting with the 35% who still favoured the death penalty. The rest remained undecided on this matter.
In 1962, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin became the last individuals to be executed in Canada, marking the end of the death penalty era. Despite last-minute appeals and public outcry, the convicted murderers were hanged back-to-back in Toronto’s Don Jail. Their fates were sealed despite the trend of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker commuting court-imposed death sentences to life imprisonment.
In 1976, the House of Commons passed Bill C-84, removing the death penalty from the Canadian Criminal Code and replacing it with a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years for all first-degree murders.
For those opposed to capital punishment, the biggest concern raised by 67% of respondents who disagree with capital punishment was that someone might be executed after a wrongful conviction.
Research Co.’s data were based on an online survey conducted between March 8 and March 10, polling 1,002 Canadian adults.