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| Ronald Smith |
The Canadian government will not be voicing its opposition to the death penalty during a clemency hearing next month in Montana for Alberta-born Ronald Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the United States.
The May 2 hearing will be the only public opportunity for supporters of Smith’s last-ditch bid to avoid execution to try to convince the state’s parole board — and ultimately Gov. Brian Schweitzer — to commute the Canadian’s death sentence to life imprisonment for the gunshot killings of two U.S. men in 1982.
And while a senior government official told Postmedia News on Thursday that Canada “will be sending an observer” to Smith’s hearing, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has made it clear the government will not make any special submissions to the parole panel to support the clemency effort.
“Ultimately, decisions regarding Mr. Smith’s case lie with the relevant U.S. authorities,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Aliya Mawani. “Mr. Smith pleaded guilty and was subsequently convicted of murdering two people. These were admitted crimes.”
Ms. Mawani added, however, that Smith would “continue to receive consular assistance” from Canadian diplomats in the U.S. and that the government — through a letter sent to Montana authorities in December that stated it is legally obliged to support the clemency effort — “has complied” with a 2009 Federal Court of Canada decision ordering Ottawa to help Smith.
The letter stressed the Canadian government “does not sympathize with violent crime” and that the country’s formal request for clemency “should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Smith’s conduct.”
That Dec. 5 letter, signed by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, was later denounced by opposition critics as the weakest possible expression of Canada’s official rejection of capital punishment and as a bare-minimum gesture of compliance by the Conservative government with the 2009 Federal Court decision.
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