Canada/Usa. Canadian Justice Robert Barnes ordered the Canadian government to seek clemency for Ronald Allen Smith, on death row in Montana

Justice Robert Barnes ordered the Canadian government to seek clemency for Ronald Allen Smith, a Canadian on death row in Montana, ruling that a sudden policy shift to ignore his plight was unfair to him. Smith was convicted in 1983 of murdering 2 Americans a year earlier, and was sentenced to death. During most of the past quarter century, successive Canadian governments have sought clemency on his behalf from the governor of Montana on humanitarian grounds. But that suddenly changed in November 2007 under a new Conservative administration led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Canada would no longer actively seek clemency for Canadians on death row who had been tried and convicted in democratic countries that support the rule of law, said ministers. At home, Canada would however continue to uphold a ban on the death penalty. Smith's lawyers argued the policy reversal provided tacit approval for his execution, and breached Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Justice Barnes ruled the government has a right to set foreign policy, but its reversal was "arbitrary and unlawful" in this case, as it seemingly targeted Smith. "In the absence of any new clemency policy I am ordering the government to continue to apply the former policy of supporting clemency on behalf of Canadians facing the death penalty in any foreign state to Mr. Smith." A spokeswoman for Canada's foreign minister told AFP the government would review the decision, while opposition parties urged Harper's government to accept it. Smith, meanwhile, remains on death row at the Montana State Penitentiary at Deer Lodge, Montana. (source: Agence France Presse, 04/03/2009)