Whazzis?

How perfectly sanctimonious, and how utterly revealing. The official Leader of the Opposition in Canada's parliament loves to leap at the proverbial throat of the current prime minister, shrilling accusing him of perverting Canada's traditional values. If not in the instance of Canada's position in Afghanistan, which a previous, Liberal government placed us in, then for a myriad of other matters.

Among which was the Conservative government's declaration that it had no intention of seeking clemency for a Canadian on death row. The reasoning being that if anyone, including a Canadian - in this instance an Albertan - committed the crime of murder - in this instance, two murders - in another, democratic country, they they could be left to the justice system of the country in which the crime took place.

Canada has had a history of unwillingness to surrender its citizens sought for extradition to the United States for crimes committed there, unless it had the assurance of the U.S. government that capital punishment leading to a death sentence would not be imposed. On the basis of this country having long ago abolished the death penalty.

But look here, what an The Ottawa Citizen reporter, Randy Boswell, has unearthed: instances where the not-so-long-ago Liberal government willingly gave up two young British Columbia men accused of murder in the United States - without invoking the no-death-penalty request.

The-then Liberal justice minister claimed, in almost exact words to those expressed by the current Conservative justice minister, that "The crimes in this case were committed on foreign soil and are subject to the foreign judicial system."

Hypocrisy most surely becomes them.