John Diefenbaker opposed the death penalty most of his political career. His opposition to capital punishment was formed during his years as a defence lawyer in Saskatchewan. He represented clients facing capital charges on more than one occasion. And when he was PM, Dief often seemed to re-try entire cases in cabinet, looking for any reason to commute a death sentence.
On this date in 1966 he gave the reason for his opposition to hanging. “From my experience at the Bar I say that anyone who says an innocent man cannot go to the gallows is wrong, because I know differently,” Diefenbaker said. “It is a frightful thing when a man you believe to be innocent and whose attitude is, ‘Don’t worry about me, God will not allow it,’ walks to the gallows and months later the truth comes out.”
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.