In his 2007/12/06 blog post, LFP Editor Paul Berton writes, “Robert Latimer is clearly not a threat to anyone. Nor obviously was prison a deterrent for his crime. The judge and the prosecution (if not necessarily higher courts) agreed that he was acting in what he believed were the best interests of his severly handicapped daugher, who was in constant pain until he killed her. Surely, he’s suffered enough, even without prison. Surely, no amount of the ‘counselling’ the parole board thinks he might benefit from will change his mind that he did what he thought was best.”
It seems to me that Mr. Latimer is engaged in a personal political action, and that he has the courage of his convictions. I’m not saying that he was right or wrong, but it’d be easy for him to tell the Parole Board what they want to hear so that he’d have a chance of getting out. I think Mr. Latimer is making a political statement. The question is, does anybody hear it? Does anybody care?
Links:
2007/12/06 – CBC: Latimer (audio)
2007/12/07 – Chronicle Herald: Parole board’s cruel decision
2007/12/12 – CBC: Robert Latimer decision sparks parole debate
Tags: accountability, Canada, crime, disability, disabled, justice, kill, Latimer, mercy, parole, political, Politics, principle, remorse, scapegoat
