Home · On This Day · Dec. 11, 1962
Canada's last executions
Broadcast Date: Dec. 10, 1962
(low audio) Their crime: murder. Their punishment: death.
Shortly after midnight on Dec. 11, 1962, two cop killers will face death by hanging. They will be Canada's last executions. Ronald Turpin, 29, is convicted of shooting a Toronto police constable. Arthur Lucas, 54, is convicted of murdering an FBI informant working in Canada. Fighting the fierce cold, a small group of vocal protesters has gathered outside Toronto's Don Jail.
"Men are dying for mere vengeance," one protester tells a CBC reporter, "when it's not going to accomplish any good at all."
Last minute appeals for clemency fail and Turpin and Lucas become the last two men to be punished by death in this country.
Canada's last executions
• The death penalty in Canada was formally abolished on July 14, 1976 by a vote of 131 to 124.• Between 1892 and 1961 the penalty for murders in Canada was hanging.
• The last woman to be hanged in Canada was Marguerite Pitre. She was executed in 1953.
Also on December 11:
• 1813: Newark, Ontario (now Niagara-on-the-Lake), is burned to the ground by American troops during the War of 1812.
• 1838: Brewer-entrepreneur John Labatt is born in Westminster Township, Upper Canada (Ontario). See: Selling Suds, the Beer Industry in Canada.
• 1975: Archbishop Edward (Ted) Scott, the Anglican Primate of Canada, is elected moderator of the World Council of Churches. He served until 1983.
Canada's last executions
Medium: Television
Program: CBC News
Broadcast Date: Dec. 10, 1962
Duration: 1:14
Last updated:
Dec. 4, 2008
Capital Punishment is a good thing to re-instate. Taxpayers should not have to pay for murders and serial sex offenders to live better than our citizens. It is not a big deterent but there are many lives that will be saved from destruction, costing more in mental health, health care and other services for the victims and victim families.
Submitted by: star planet
I am a reluctant US citizen who wishes he were living in Canada as the death penalty is barbaric and has no place in a civilized society. Obviously the US is pretty barbaric and I am ashamed of it. I am disappointed to read that there is support for it in Canada. Please note that most nations have abolished the death penalty and it is, after all, revenge, and that is it. As a Christian, I realize that revenge is not a correct motive. I pray that your country continues to stay civilized.
Submitted by: Thomas W. Billing
Capital Punishment has no place in the modern world. It does not deter criminals - we have seen in Canada that when compared to our closest retentionist state, the USA, that since abolition our rates of violent crime have dropped considerably compared to the US in the same time period. We know that in the US it costs millions of dollars more to have a death penalty and the damage done to society, to the families of the victims and to the families of the condemned, not to mention the irreparable damage to the innocent, cannot be undone. It's time the US, Iran, Japan and China move into the modern age and abolish the death penalty.
Submitted by: A Harris