{"id":2841,"date":"2018-07-12T19:48:35","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T19:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/?p=2841"},"modified":"2018-10-23T20:59:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T20:59:39","slug":"press-release-tracy-latimer-must-not-be-erased-her-murder-must-not-be-pardoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2018\/07\/press-release-tracy-latimer-must-not-be-erased-her-murder-must-not-be-pardoned\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE: TRACY LATIMER MUST NOT BE ERASED; HER MURDER MUST NOT BE PARDONED"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Download the press release in .docx format:\u00a0LatimerPardonPressRel120718EN<\/a><\/p>\n

Contact:\u00a0 Amy Hasbrouck 450-921-3057\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12 July 2018<\/p>\n

TRACY LATIMER MUST NOT BE ERASED; HER MURDER MUST NOT BE PARDONED<\/strong><\/p>\n

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Robert Latimer has submitted a letter to the Minister of Justice seeking a pardon or a new trial following his conviction for the murder of his daughter Tracy in 1993.<\/p>\n

Latimer has been free on parole since 2010. \u00a0Contrary to some media reports, Latimer has been able to travel outside Canada since 2015, according to the Globe and Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disability rights activists are concerned that the pardon request is a \u201csymptom and effect of the continuing devaluation of disabled people\u201d as shown by the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia in 2016, according to Amy Hasbrouck, director of Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet.\u00a0 She notes that individual choice is supposed to be key to the suspension of homicide laws in cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia.\u00a0 \u201cYet Tracy was not given a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hasbrouck says public policies that favour institutional care over home-based supports, and failure to fund such supports, as well as palliative care, deprive disabled people of any real choice in where and how they live.\u00a0 \u201cUnder those circumstances, how can the choice to die be truly \u2018free\u2019?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Though Hasbrouck agrees that Tracy Latimer should have received effective pain relief, she finds the statement that \u2018Tracy Latimer’s\u00a0life should have ended ‘unintentionally’ as a secondary consequence of her physicians’\u00a0administration of opiates to alleviate her pain,\u201d to be \u201cignorant, insulting, and offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hasbrouck also points to a claim made by Latimer\u2019s attorney Jason Gratl that “[g]ranting a pardon to Mr. Latimer\u00a0does not detract from any value or principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPardoning Tracy\u2019s killer would signal a failure of the Government\u2019s commitment to equality, justice, and ending discrimination against disabled Canadians,\u201d said Hasbrouck.<\/p>\n

She noted that the Latimer conviction was \u201cthe exception to the rule\u201d that parents who kill their disabled children receive more lenient treatment from the criminal justice system<\/a> than do parents who kill their non-disabled children.<\/p>\n

Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet (TVNDY) is a nonreligious and nonpartisan organization established in 2013 by and for people with disabilities as a project of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.\u00a0 Our goal is to inform, unify and give voice to the disability rights opposition to assisted suicide, euthanasia, and other life-ending practices that have a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\nOur press release responding to Robert Latimer’s news.\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “PRESS RELEASE: TRACY LATIMER MUST NOT BE ERASED; HER MURDER MUST NOT BE PARDONED”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “PRESS RELEASE: TRACY LATIMER MUST NOT BE ERASED; HER MURDER MUST NOT BE PARDONED”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[130,129],"class_list":["post-2841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-latimer","tag-press-release","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2841"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3387,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions\/3387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}