Capital punishment, 1976 : the debate in the House of Commons that the newspaper did not write about

Capital punishment was a feature of Canada's judicial system from the days of the first French and English settlers until 1976, when it was abolished by Parliament in a vote of 133-125. The numerous parliamentary debates during the last 60 years on abolishing capital punishment, and the closeness of the final vote, are an indication of the intense feeling that has surrounded the abolition question over the years. This is an examination of the speeches that were given during the second reading debate in May and June, 1976, in the House of Commons, on Bill C-84, "An Act to amend the Criminal Code in relation to the Punishment for murder and certain other serious offences." Then, there is an examination of the news reports, the editorials and the op-ed articles on this subject, published by The Globe and Mail and Le Devoir. The study shows the two newspapers had marked differences in their approach to the story and the manner in which they chose to write about it: The result is that readers of each paper were given quite different perceptions of what actually happened and was said during the debate.