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Concept
Capital punishment in Canada
Summary
Capital punishment in Canada dates back to Canada's earliest history, including its period as a French colony and, after 1763, its time as a British colony. From 1867 to the elimination of the death penalty for murder on July 26, 1976, 1,481 people had been sentenced to death, and 710 had been executed. Of those executed, 697 were men and 13 were women. The only method used in Canada for capital punishment of civilians after the end of the French regime was hanging. The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962, at Toronto's Don Jail. The military prescribed firing squad as the method of execution until 1999, although no military executions had been carried out since 1946.
The death penalty was de facto abolished in Canada in January 1963 and de jure in September 1999. In 1976, Bill C-48 was enacted, abolishing the death penalty for murder, treason, and piracy. Some service offences under the National Defence Act continued to carry a mandatory death sentence if committed traitorously, although no one had been executed for that since 1945. Canada eliminated the death penalty for these military offences on September 1, 1999.
Criminal justice in New France
The post of executioner in New France was briefly held by André Bernard in 1645, but was not permanently occupied until 1648, when a military drummer stationed at the French garrison in Ville-Marie, New France was sentenced to death for sodomy by the local Sulpician priests. After an intervention by the Jesuits in Quebec City, the drummer's life was spared on the condition that he accept the position of New France's first permanent executioner. As only the drummer was placed on trial, some historians have suggested that his sexual partner may have been a First Nations man who was not subject to French religious law.
Official source
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