The issue of capital punishment cannot simply be summed up in a few paragraphs, it is an
             topic of great debate, over both the issue of deterrence and of conscience. There are few matters
             which stir such heated debate, there are both abolitionists and retentionists, there are also those in
             the middle, the people who can discern legitimacy from each group. Each group has a set of
             beliefs which do apply to this matter, perhaps some groups subscribe to the old testament and its
             injunction " an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth " ( The law of Moses, The Old Testament ), or
             possibly some simply view capital punishment as legalized homicide, whatever the case may be
             one must put aside personal beliefs and attempt to comprehend the facts and statistics of this issue
             Capital punishment in Canada effectively ended on December 10, 1962 with the double
             hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin in the Don Jail in Toronto ( Anderson, 78-79 ). After
             these executions the government began to commute all death sentences to life sentences. Then in
             1976 a bill was introduced by the liberal government, abolishing the death penalty which passed
             by a narrow margin of 130 to 124 ( Chandler, 199). This legislation saw murder divided into
             either first or second degree homicide, similar to the method our current day legal system uses as
             a definition. Later in the 1980's the Canadian public began to feel that perhaps once again the
             death penalty should be a part of the legal system. There were several reasons that the Canadian
             public felt this way, one such reason was the publics perception that the vote in 1976 was not a
             true "free vote", secondly 1984 saw a dramatic increase in the murder of police officers, which
             doubled from the previous year. All of these concerns and events culminated into another vote in
             the House of Commons, this vote took place on June 30, 1987 and was a motion to a...