Smith has been on death row since pleading guilty to the murders of Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Madman, Jr., in Montana in 1982. He asked for the death sentence, which he was then given.On December 10, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird sent a letter to Montana's governor asking him to grant clemency to Canadian death-row inmate Ronald Smith.

Critics of the letter — specifically Smith's lawyers — aren't sure why.

Smith has been on death row since pleading guilty to the murders of Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Madman, Jr., in Montana in 1982. He asked for the death sentence, which he was then given.

Since then, Smith has had a change of heart and has been asking for clemency.

[ Related: Foreign affairs minister sends letter asking clemency for death row Canadian ]

The Canadian Press reports that "the Harper government initially refused to back Smith's calls for clemency, saying he was convicted in a democratic country. But the Federal Court ruled Ottawa must follow a long-standing practice of lobbying on behalf of Canadians sentenced to death in other countries."

So Baird wrote a letter — almost identical to the one sent to the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole

People arrive for the funeral of Sandy Hook Elementary School student James Mattioli, 6, at the Saint Rose of Lima church in Newtown, Connecticut December 18, 2012.The first step ardent gun advocates take following a tragedy on the scope of the Connecticut elementary school shooting is to warn the public not to "politicize" the issue by calling for gun control.

That step is then followed by the argument that more guns, not less, is the way to stop the next mass shooting. We are seeing that argument in full force now, less than a week after 26 people including 20 children under the age of seven were killed in a hail of gunfire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Oregon State Rep. Dennis Richardson led the charge on that front, when he sent an email to several school superintendents suggesting teachers with guns could have stopped gunman Adam Lanza.

[ Related: Are tougher U.S. gun laws on the horizon? ]

The email, obtained by Gawker this week, was sent the day of the shooting and reads in part:

If I had been a teacher or the principal at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and if the school district did not preclude me from having access

Two young children were buried in Newtown, Conn., on Monday, the first of more than two dozen victims that will be laid to rest as the town, the country and our society try to move beyond the senseless tragedy that struck last Friday.

Reuters reports that Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both 6 years old, were laid to rest in separate ceremonies. White balloons lines the street where Noah's friends and family gathered to remember him. Jack, a New York Giants fan, was buried in his favourite jersey.

[ Related: Funerals begin for Newtown victims as schools confront tragedy ]

President Barack Obama expressed the sentiment of a nation during a vigil on Sunday, telling the community that the entire United States shared their sorrow.

In his speech, Obama said:

I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts.  I can only hope it helps

Teachers from Fenelon Township elementary school in the Trillium Lakelands district of eastern Ontario picket outside the school in Cameron, Ontario December 13, 2012.Elementary school teachers in Ontario continue to hold a series of one-day strikes across the province and are looking forward to "Super Tuesday" — the largest day of job action, and the biggest trick left in a bag already bordering on empty.

Parents in Toronto and several other major school districts will be affected by Tuesday's strikes, when Toronto elementary school teachers walk off the job with seven other boards and leave hundreds of thousands of students in the cold.

The Toronto Star reports that parents have been rushing to make alternate arrangements for childcare. Some children will be brought to work; others will be watched by daycares, family friends or parents of other students.

[ Related: Why not let students sort out Ontario teachers' spat with government? ]

After that, the rolling strikes will continue across the province. But one questions the effect they will have on pressuring the government to bend.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has said

As America and, by extension, Canada move on from the tragic attack on a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 staff and students dead and far more families mourning, there is a sense that perhaps this time the outrage will make way for actual change.

The outpouring of sentiment following the horrific events in Newtown, Conn., late last week have been quick and aggressive, and have expanded well beyond the once-picturesque town and its grieving residents.

Professional athletes have written the names of victims on their sneakers in well-intentioned tributes. "Saturday Night Live" opened their weekend show with a heartfelt moment that made no attempt at humour and memorials of all sorts have been held in towns and homes across the country.

Supporters place signs with the faces of missing women on a basket of roses. (Reuters)Despite an announced 1 p.m. PT release time today, the contents of Oppal's 1,448 page inquiry report were made public hours earlier thanks to leaked advance copies of the report from victims' family members.

The long-awaited report includes 63 recommendations, including establishing police accountability to communities, creating a single regional police force for the Greater Vancouver area, improving missing person policies and, perhaps most important to human rights groups, putting in place measures that will help prevent violence against vulnerable women.

Oppal wrote that the Vancouver Police and RCMP "both contributed to a series of critical failures with respect to their missing women investigations and to Pickton’s crimes," the National Post reported, adding that Oppal cited the failure of the police to fully investigate Pickton and to provide sufficient resources to the investigations.

[ Related: Facts about the 33 women whose remains or DNA were found on Robert Pickton’s

Radio Canada photo

White elephant? Architectural anachronism? Continuing financial sink hole? Eyesore?

How about an important piece of cultural heritage?

That's what a committee studying the future of Olympic Park and the stadium that was the centrepiece of the 1976 Summer Games has concluded after a year of analysis, the National Post reports.

Members of the public called the Olympic Stadium dreadful, too expensive, horrible and useless, committee chairwoman Lisa Bissonnette told the Post.

Nothing a couple of hundred kilograms of carefully placed explosives wouldn't cure, right? Well, no, said Bissonnette. Instead of demolishing the crumbling, underused facility, many want the building and surrounding grounds to get a facelift to make it more attractive to visitors.

"People were very enthusiastic," Bissonnette said.

The committee, which published its report on Thursday, is recommending a number of changes, including taking another stab at

In a four-decade career in journalism, one of the things I never quite got used to was interviewing people connected to a tragedy. The last thing I wanted to do while reporting on a fatal traffic accident, an avalanche or a shooting was knock on a family's door as they were wrestling with a sudden tragic loss.

Sometimes my job required me to set aside my discomfort and gingerly approach someone who could help tell the story of what happened.

There's been social-media backlash against reporters who interviewed school children just after the massacre of students and teachers at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., this Friday.

[ Related: Kids describe shooting, their escapes ]

Within hours of the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack that left 27 dead, Twitter was slamming journalists for approaching young children still likely shocked by the mass shooting. Tweets, some laced with expletives, excoriated reporters for trying to get eyewitness accounts from kids no older than 10.

"Dear