Capital crimes in good and bad countries

Prime Minister Harper is intervening on behalf of Canadian Mohamed Kohail, sentenced to beheading in Saudi Arabia.  Obviously, this is a good thing.  We don’t support capital punishment in Canada, and there are questions about the way trials are conducted in Saudi Arabia.

What’s upsetting is that Harper is not intervening in other cases.  Three months ago, he announced that Canada would not intervene in death penalty cases in democratic countries.  He thus overturned decades of precedent in Canadian diplomacy and incurred the wrath of many human rights organizations and the Anglican Church of Canada.  As a result, at least one Canadian, Ronald Smith, is likely to be executed in the United States.