Canada
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Canada also cosponsored the resolution on the moratorium...
- News items in the archive
- 141
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Canada is classified as Abolitionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 141 news items on Canada, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- SEPTEMBER 4, 2003CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The UN Human Rights Committee said Canadian authorities...
The UN Human Rights Committee said Canadian authorities breached an international human rights treaty by deporting convicted killer Roger Judge back to death row in Pennsylvania in 1998 after he had served a separate 10-year term in Quebec for crimes comm
- AUGUST 8, 2003CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian convicted of...
Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian convicted of carrying out a wave of bombings in Saudi Arabia in 2000 and early 2001 were freed by the Gulf state
- APRIL 24, 2003CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the resolution...
Canada was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- MARCH 1, 2003CanadaDEATH PENALTY
James Sampson, father of William Sampson, a Canadian...
James Sampson, father of William Sampson, a Canadian facing a death sentence in Saudi Arabia arrived in the kingdom to meet his son
- JANUARY 1, 2003CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes...
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1976 and for military offenses on December 10, 1998
- DECEMBER 17, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada proposed dropping the words "human rights" from...
Canada proposed dropping the words "human rights" from its foreign-aid strategy for China, angering activists and raising questions about the direction of one of its most expensive aid programs
- OCTOBER 10, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The Canadian House of Commons has passed a motion urging...
The Canadian House of Commons has passed a motion urging President Olusegun Obasanjo to intervene in saving the life of Amina Lawal, the woman sentenced to death by stoning by a Sharia Upper Court in Katsina for adultery
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
A Saudi lawyer for a William Sampson, a Canadian man...
A Saudi lawyer for a William Sampson, a Canadian man on trial in Riyadh over a fatal bombing denied widespread reports his client had already been sentenced to death and expressed confidence that he and his co-accused would soon be freed
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Lawyers for Canadian businessman William Sampson, who...
Lawyers for Canadian businessman William Sampson, who is facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia over a fatal bombing allege their client and his co-accused were tortured and had their confessions beaten out of them
- AUGUST 28, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The Canadian government, accused by critics of ignoring...
The Canadian government, accused by critics of ignoring the case of Amina Lawal Kurami, a Nigerian woman sentenced to death for bearing a child out of wedlock, said it had already protested twice
- JUNE 28, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
China's alleged smuggling mastermind, Lai Changxing,...
China's alleged smuggling mastermind, Lai Changxing, will not have to stay in jail as he keeps up his fight to remain in Canada as a political refugee
- JUNE 21, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Lai Changxing, China's most wanted fugitive who allegedly...
Lai Changxing, China's most wanted fugitive who allegedly oversaw a huge smuggling empire, was denied political asylum by a Canadian immigration panel
- APRIL 26, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada was urgently checking an unconfirmed report...
Canada was urgently checking an unconfirmed report that a Canadian businessman in Saudi Arabia accused of being involved in a fatal bombing was sentenced to death in a secret trial, officials said
- APRIL 26, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The Saudi lawyer of a Canadian accused of involvement...
The Saudi lawyer of a Canadian accused of involvement in a fatal bombing denied reports that his client had been sentenced to death in a secret trial in the Muslim kingdom
- APRIL 25, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada was a cosponsor and voted for the resolution...
Canada was a cosponsor and voted for the resolution 2002/77 on the death penalty at the 58th UN Commission on Human Rights
- MARCH 18, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Author Salman Rushdie, under a death threat for years...
Author Salman Rushdie, under a death threat for years for allegedly blaspheming Islam in a novel, has not been allowed to fly on Air Canada since September and an airline spokeswoman said she could not say when the ban would be lifted
- FEBRUARY 27, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia is trying seven foreigners accused of...
Saudi Arabia is trying seven foreigners accused of bomb attacks that raised fears of anti-western terror in the kingdom, the interior minister said
- JANUARY 11, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada's Supreme Court ruled that refugees who face...
Canada's Supreme Court ruled that refugees who face torture in their homelands "generally" cannot be deported there, unless the evidence shows that their continued presence in Canada poses a serious security risk to the country
- JANUARY 1, 2002CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes...
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1976 and for military offenses on December 10, 1998
- NOVEMBER 14, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
At the opening session of the UN Third Committee's...
At the opening session of the UN Third Committee's general debate on human rights, Canadian delegate Gilbert Laurin said that the Iraqi Government continued to show complete disregard for the rights and dignity of its citizens
- NOVEMBER 7, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The lawyer for China's most wanted fugitive, Lai Changxing,...
The lawyer for China's most wanted fugitive, Lai Changxing, launched a withering attack on China's judicial system, branding it untrustworthy and unfair
- OCTOBER 23, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Chinese President Jiang Zemin asked Canada to extradite...
Chinese President Jiang Zemin asked Canada to extradite China's most wanted fugitive, the alleged smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing, promising he will not be executed if returned
- SEPTEMBER 24, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The Canadian government said that a Supreme Court judgment...
The Canadian government said that a Supreme Court judgment forbidding it from extraditing suspects to a country where they could face the death penalty did not mean those linked to attacks in the United States could find a haven in Canada
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The main Canadian Alliance opposition party, saying...
The main Canadian Alliance opposition party, saying Canada had become a staging ground for armed groups wanting to attack the United States, called on Ottawa to introduce anti-terrorism legislation along the lines of Britain's 2000 Terrorism Act
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
A slight majority of Canadians favoured the death penalty...
A slight majority of Canadians favoured the death penalty last month, suggests an opinion poll
- APRIL 25, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada was a cosponsor and voted in favor of the resolution...
Canada was a cosponsor and voted in favor of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 25, 2001
- APRIL 12, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Leon Mugesera, 47, an alleged Rwandan war criminal,...
Leon Mugesera, 47, an alleged Rwandan war criminal, temporarily won his appeal against deportation from Canada on but still faces human rights charges here against the ethnic Tutsi minority in his homeland
- FEBRUARY 16, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
The Canadian Supreme Court ruling was issued in the...
The Canadian Supreme Court ruling was issued in the Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns
- FEBRUARY 15, 2001CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes...
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1976 and for military offenses on December 10, 1998
- NOVEMBER 23, 2000CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Lai Changxing, 46, the alleged mastermind behind the...
Lai Changxing, 46, the alleged mastermind behind the Xiamen smuggling racket who was arrested in Canada on 23 November, is almost certain to face the death penalty if sent back to China