Latimer To Take Campaign To Ottawa

Do I dare to write about this issue? I mean it is not funny. It is not something that is nice. It is disturbing and will conjure up sore points in our society. We don’t like conjuring up sore points in our society. We like it to be gone and then we don’t have to deal with it.

Sorry folks – you will have to deal with it and beginning this week it is in your face big time!

The name Latimer can be read about 40,700 times as of this morning in a Google Search using “Freed Latimer” – and 3,240,000 using just “Latimer”. I am sure that everyone that has the name Latimer will be thrilled with this information.

In 1994 Robert Latimer murdered his 12 year old daughter. He has stated over and over again that it was done because he loved her. In 1994 the Province of Saskatchewan Public was gripped by the newest onslaught of dealing with a new issue of “one person’s rights to take another person’s life”.

Does that seem odd to you? It should. Murder is murder. Murder is taking another person’s life. Adding another level to the meaning because you want off is just nuts! Because you think you are above the law – does not give you the right to do what you want to do – especially when it is murder.

But it is NOT MURDER… it is victim assisted suicide or mercy killing. Every farmer knows that better than anyone. Hurt, lame, or sick cows, dogs and cats are put down. They cost too much to keep alive so they are put down. Everyone in Saskatchewan, in 1994, knew that – and had known it since the start of time. But they also know that purposely killing a human is called MURDER.

I cannot tell you the shock that I felt yesterday. When I opened the Globe and Mail Newspaper to read the announcement that Robert Latimer’s appeal for the December 5, 2007 Parole Hearing was successful. In a heart beat a small group of Parole Board People, at the top level by the way, had over turned an age old standard. In an eleven page directive the “Appeal Parole Board folk” stated that you guys and gals at the Parole Board Hearing in December – are all wrong. Robert Latimer should be released and be released immediately.

Now be reminded here – Parole Board People are not elected – they are appointed to powerful positions that dictate what happens to lives of men and women (and their families) that have committed crimes and are about to be released. They make decisions about what and how society is protected from BAD PEOPLE. They are powerful and they are protectors.

Pause here… and take a breath…
Lest you think that I do not know what I am talking about – you know like I am some sort of “whacko Evangelical” that rants about the ‘conservative’ agendas – THINK AGAIN!

I am a pastor that is in court a lot. I work with men coming home from prison – all kinds of them. Many are murderers. Some are sex offenders. Some are robbers. All are guilty and have spent more than a fair share of their time in prison. I visit them inside of prison. I know them well.

I walk with men as they walk toward the parole hearing. I pray with them and hope with them. I hurt with them when they don’t get it. I shudder with them when they get out as they face the continued hatred of a society filled with ‘un-helped victims of crime’.

So what about Latimer?

Latimer is not someone that scares me. It is the world out there that scares me the most. Reading one small but very powerful revelation yesterday was what shocked me the most.

Here is the Editor’s comment in yesterday’s Globe and Mail…February 28, 2008.
~ Quote…
A terrible injustice has been overturned in the case of Robert Latimer. The National Parole Board’s appeal division has tossed out the preposterous ruling of a board panel that denied day parole to Mr. Latimer, a Saskatchewan farmer who killed his severely disabled daughter Tracy in 1994. The initial ruling made the baseless assertion that Mr. Latimer might go out and kill disabled people. As “evidence” they sited his refusal to accept that he was wrong to kill Tracy. If he wished ever to be free, it suggested, he would undertake counselling aimed at changing his mind.

This was a breathtakingly wrong on all counts – on the law, on the way human beings think and feel, and on Mr. Latimer himself. His daughter was 12 but had the mental age of a four-month-old and faced several operations and a great deal of pain; the judge at his murder trial accepted that, wrong as he was, Mr. Latimer killed her out of mercy. Ultimately sentenced to life in prison, he was made subject to the minimum wait for parole described by law for second-degree murder – 10 years (seven year for day parole).

Now the parole board’s appeal division has called the denial of that parole “unreasonable and unsupported,” and said he does not pose a danger to re-offend. Some may twist this decision to say it devalues the lives of the disabled. In fact, the law has punished Mr. Latimer, and the punishment has ended as prescribed by law. ~ End quote.

Here is one of the problems Mr. G&M Editor… you now can start speaking for the dozens of guys inside that are so ready to come out – but are being dreadfully wronged by some silly parole board. In some cases they are wronged over and over again… and you are not writing about them.

I can guarantee that the Appeals division of the National Parole Board are going to have lots of work to do very soon – when the guys inside see how this is done and it is done with such ease. Even Latimer’s lawyer was surprised with the quickness of it all.

I am imagining here also that the Government of Canada (the Conservatives) were not really expecting this one just as they struggle through a new budget, and other possible votes to dethrone them on every side.

Why am I passionate about this issue? For one – I am from Saskatchewan originally. I also lived there when it all happened and knew the local struggles of dealing with these issues. I knew a pastor that helped the family and also people that drove the severely disabled Tracy to and from appointments. They had stood with the family and were broad sided when Robert decided ‘on his own’ to kill Tracy. That little community was rocked to its roots…just like all Saskatchewan-tonians were.

But more than that – things are going to change big time. Mr. Latimer is not going back to his Saskatchewan farming days. He is moving to Ottawa to begin his next career as a lobbyist to change the laws of our country. He is being moved there soon on our dollar to live in a Parole half way house…out during the day to work with politicians and make some changes for all of us.

Why am I passionate? I remember my Uncle Bob who was a quadriplegic. He never fed himself a day in his life. He lived on a farm in southern Saskatchewan 60 miles south west of Regina. He suffered and the family suffered. He didn’t smell good and he hurt lots. My grandparents were told that he wouldn’t likely live past 12 years old. He suffered a huge amount in his life – so did his family. Uncle Bob died at 70 years old after a caregiver in a Senior’s Home, fed him while he was laying on his back. He choked to death slowly.

Uncle Bob looked a lot like Tracy…but he could talk with great difficulty.

But Uncle Bob wasn’t like Tracy – the family loved him too much to take his life.

But things are changing. Someday they will call the new law, ‘Robert’s Law’ or even ‘Tracy’s Law’.

The Bible tells me that Jesus instructed us to pray for those who are in authority over us. Today more than ever I do that. God, how we need your help!

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~

Resources:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=341490

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=0bf4b45b-2af3-41e4-bf6a-75e2637c240c&k=39644

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080228.BCLATIMER28/TPStory/National

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/letters/story.html?id=8d5f5957-ebc3-4cfa-8161-985e38781f52
http://ago.mobile.globeandmail.com/generated/archive/RTGAM/html/20080228/wbclatimer28.html