Yes, because deciding to kill people based on popular opinion is a completely unproblematic line of thinking. I'm sure that public figure JJ McCullough would benefit from a society where we kill based on the will of the mob.
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He pretends to have the most comically Canadian accent just to please his American subscribers on youtube. No one says "about" like that, especially not in Vancouver. He's a fraudulent lap dog slinging bad stereotypes for an ignorant audience.
If we were to reinstate it, we'd eventually ditch it again. And for the same reasons: it's expensive, it doesn't seem to be a deterrent, and justice systems throw too many false positives. That's how I see it, anyways. Now dueling...well, I'd cross swords with Ezra Levant in a second. And win.
The death penalty was abolished decades ago and hasn't been attributed to an increase in homicide rates.
If JJ likes to spend so much time online , he could easily do a crumb of research and discover that Canada last hung someone in 1962.
The argument that no death penalty = higher risk to police
is unfounded.
It very much is public opinion that the death penalty is good bc the topic is usually joined with an emotion appeal like "what if someone hurt your family " it's based on a bogeyman and not facts
Alan Hustack has an excellent book on the last people executed in Canada. People need to be reminded about Donald Marshall, Guy Paul Morin, Stephen Truscott...
I watched him get interviewed by Tim Miller (The Bulwark)
He had this terrible Gowan 1989 hairdo with soooo much hairspray.
Total weirdo with zero charm.Laughing at not funny things, then not laughing at funny things.
All this to say, he’s an off putting knob.
Also, the death penalty is absolutely abhorrent and state sanctioned murder for the purposes of retribution has no place in a democracy (also it has no demonstrable effect on deterring crime).
Not to mention this is completely false...there is a majority against such a policy and has been for some time...this is mis-info//propaganda...to save DoFo freelancing at the Police dinner.
If human value is part of the natural order, then we have no moral imperative to try to solve human suffering… we need only react. If human value is a type of judgement, we have responsibilities.
This is the fundamental psychological difference between a capitalist and a socialist.
What! Seriously Doug ford is insane! We have evolved font claw is back to our USA counterparts they are clearly going back to oppression. As far as women no one should stand between her and her do that’s just human rights!
Ummm, just because your warped mind thinks the death penalty is cool doesn't make it popular opinion. I'm pretty old and have never had a discussion with anyone over this. Most Canadians are proud we don't kill people. Where is your mind coming from?
The base principle for the conservative is the idea that people only ever get what they deserve… that there is no such thing as a social injustice, only violations of the natural order.
Majority doesn’t make something right!🤦🏽♀️ We have that on full display south of the border. I respect JJ for his work ethic and love of country, but sometimes I find him saying the stupidest things as a Canadian. 🤦🏽♀️💕🇨🇦
From what I'm reading those that agree with the death penalty, given a choice, many would prefer life imprisonment with no hope of parole. I think a lot of it is a fear of especially evil murderers being released to repeat their crimes.
The first time I was introduced to JJ McCullough was through Yootoob.
His over pronounced “abooooot” drove me mental.
His trash opinions made me hate him.
Yeah, nothing like majority support for a system that, if still in place, would have seen at least three innocent men in my lifetime executed by the state for crimes they didn't commit.
And does he have any stats to support this or is he one of those cons who think that everyone shares their opinions? I’ve seen him on The Bulwark and I suspect it’s the latter. He likes to make a lot of claims (when he’s not mocking Canadians as if we’re bumpkins)
The people who don't trust the government to determine whether there is a global pandemic based upon the sudden, near global need for mobile freezers outside of hospitals think the very same government can flawlessly determine guilt and carry out lethal punishment. We should seriously consider this.
Still it's worth addressing the fact that the reason some politicians bring up the idea is because the idea is pretty popular in Canada. More popular than MANY things we actually do.
And even if it's arguably true, it's never a great idea politically to brand 55-60% of the population as a mob, imho.
The problem is that it’s often the minorities (capitalists, property owners) that use it pejoratively against the majority (workers, non-propertied people) for political reasons.
But whether majority or minority, democracy is mob rule.
Addressing something that has killed innocent people and doesn't work as the intended deterrent is a waste of time. There are far more effective methods to reduce crime, but none of them are polled like death penalties
As someone who opposes the death penalty I personally think it's very important for me to remember that I'm in the minority and that the death penalty is quite popular.
It's similar to my thoughts on how the Liberals/NDP should keep in mind that the CPC have won the popular vote in 5/6 elections.
The CPC is nowhere near winning the popular vote though... There's just no one viable to the right of them. You have to combine Lib/NDP/Bloc/Green together to see leftist ideas are the vast majority of the electorate.
Thinking, "the CPC is nowhere near winning the popular vote" in the context of, "the CPC DID win the popular vote in 2021, 2019, 2011, 2008 and 2006" is the problem.
Combining the votes of FOUR parties (one a SEPARATIST party) is exactly the sort of "pulling the wool over your eyes" that annoys me.
Look at the policies though. 35% of voters is by no means a majority point of view. Why would that fact annoy you? And besides, the Bloc has other policy ideas than separatism - Quebec isn't voting them in because of the separatism, they vote for them because of the policy ideas.
It annoys me because we live in a country where the CPC is very popular & had a double digit-polling lead in every poll conducted in 2024, ended the year with a 25-30 point polling lead and 6 straight months of seat projections predicting they were on the verge of winning the most seats in history.
I don't get where you think the death penalty is popular. While people may jest about it in common everyday speech, I think most Canadians understand how unreliable the justice system is and putting people to death in such an unreliable system is heinous. It's abolished and will stay that way.
"More than half of Canadians (55 per cent, up two points since 2023) prefer life imprisonment without the possibility of parole to deal with convicted murderers, while just over a third (35 per cent, down two points) choose the death penalty."
(From the article, though it goes all over the place.)
The main issue there is that I think most Canadians now understand that the courts have repeatedly ruled that life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is a constitutionally invalid sentence that courts are not allowed to apply.
Which, ironically, increases the death penalty's popularity.
The idea is popular because it's a simple abstraction.
Discuss David Milgaard or Guy Paul Morin, ask people if the government always gets it right, THEN ask if they support the death penalty.
I don't disagree but I also understand that one can do the exact same thing in reverse by reminding people that Paul Bernardo is in a pretty comfortable medium security facility right now and THEN asking them if they support the death penalty.
(Also, in BOTH case it's very likley >50% say yes)
The emphasis in my previous point was on the justice system getting it wrong, and without getting too far off topic, part of the outrage over Bernardo is that the justice system got it wrong with Karla Homolka
We're largely in agreement, my point is simply that when advocating against the death penalty people need to keep in mind that most Canadians support the death penalty. Just like when trying to defeat the CPC we should keep in mind that the CPC won the popular vote in five of the last six elections.
As the mother of a child killed in a criminal act, I think it’s fair for me to speak on this subject
I don’t want Gracie’s killer killed
I want Gracie alive
*I know it’s too late for my child but the money spent to execute people could be spent on prevention/stopping the crime before it’s committed
It does zero to reduce crime. The reduction of crime happens in community and education. If we want to reduce crime we need to invest in community, mental health, drug and alcohol rehab, etc.
Comments
If JJ likes to spend so much time online , he could easily do a crumb of research and discover that Canada last hung someone in 1962.
The argument that no death penalty = higher risk to police
It very much is public opinion that the death penalty is good bc the topic is usually joined with an emotion appeal like "what if someone hurt your family " it's based on a bogeyman and not facts
So yeah ... let's talk about the death penalty Doug.
He had this terrible Gowan 1989 hairdo with soooo much hairspray.
Total weirdo with zero charm.Laughing at not funny things, then not laughing at funny things.
All this to say, he’s an off putting knob.
@thebulwark.bsky.social
Do human beings have value? Yes.
Is that value inherent? No.
Is that value equal across people? No, but it fucking *should* be.
This is the fundamental psychological difference between a capitalist and a socialist.
Like this comic...
They just get off on bloodsport.
His over pronounced “abooooot” drove me mental.
His trash opinions made me hate him.
And even if it's arguably true, it's never a great idea politically to brand 55-60% of the population as a mob, imho.
The problem is that it’s often the minorities (capitalists, property owners) that use it pejoratively against the majority (workers, non-propertied people) for political reasons.
But whether majority or minority, democracy is mob rule.
If a group of people, big or small can force me to behave in a certain way via the perceived threat of force then they are a mob.
Just because I accept and prefer the majority to be in charge doesn’t mean I shouldn’t call a spade a spade.
It's similar to my thoughts on how the Liberals/NDP should keep in mind that the CPC have won the popular vote in 5/6 elections.
Combining the votes of FOUR parties (one a SEPARATIST party) is exactly the sort of "pulling the wool over your eyes" that annoys me.
Now, it's true, when I was younger support was consistently WELL above 60%, so it's fallen, but it's still over 50%.
https://www.biv.com/news/commentary/poll-majority-of-canadians-support-death-penalty-for-murder-8536218
(From the article, though it goes all over the place.)
Which, ironically, increases the death penalty's popularity.
Discuss David Milgaard or Guy Paul Morin, ask people if the government always gets it right, THEN ask if they support the death penalty.
(Also, in BOTH case it's very likley >50% say yes)
I don’t want Gracie’s killer killed
I want Gracie alive
*I know it’s too late for my child but the money spent to execute people could be spent on prevention/stopping the crime before it’s committed