Latimer's Attorney and Disability Rights Advocates Address High Court
by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 14, 2000

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--As disability rights advocates watched from a Canadian
Supreme Court gallery today, the attorney for Robert Latimer argued that
the confessed murderer should not be forced to serve the mandatory sentence
for killing his daughter, Tracy. Attorney Edward Greenspan told the packed
courtroom that the parents of the twelve-year-old, who had cerebral palsy
and mental retardation, feared that surgeries to relieve the girl's pain
would "torture" and "mutilate" her.

"It is an unforgivable suggestion that Bob and Laura ever acted out of
anything but love for their daughter," Greenspan told the court.

Robert Latimer confessed to gassing his daughter to death in his pickup
truck in 1993. He has maintained that he did it to help end her "suffering".
He is asking for a constitutional exemption that would have him
serve two years of a life sentence -- one year on his ranch -- as originally
imposed by the 1998 jury that convicted him, rather than the mandatory
minimum ten years that was later imposed by the Saskatchewan Supreme Court.

Greenspan also dismissed claims from disability rights advocates who feel
that such a ruling would further devalue people who have disabilities. "It
is not a case of open season on the most vulnerable in society," he argued.

Advocates asked that the maximum sentence be imposed and pointed out that
there would have been no question regarding Robert Latimer's sentence if
Tracy had not had a disability. Making an exception in this case would
create a legal double standard in which people with disabilities can be
murdered without fear of punishment, they argued.

Latimer was not present, today, but some of his supporters marched outside
in the rain. One said he is being unfairly punished for doing what "any
father would do if he loved his children".
----
by Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express
Disability Rights News Service
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