Canadian True Crime - 37 Tracy Latimer

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

Wilkie, SaskatchewanThe story of a farming family who find themselves in a heartbreaking situation, in what would become one of the most controversial court cases in Canadian history.Podcast recommendations:True Crime Bullsh**: The Story of Israel KeyesUncover: Bomb on BoardAdditional resources:Book: Robert Latimer: A story of justice and mercy, by Gary BauslaughDark Topic episode: Dr KevorkianSupport my sponsors! Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsorsJoin my patreon for $2 a month to get ad-free, early-release episodes: www.patreon.com/canadiantruecrime Credits:Research: Haley GrayAdditional research, writing, narration, music arrangement: Kristi LeeAudio production: Erik KrosbyDisclaimer voiced by the host of Beyond Bizarre True CrimeAll credits and information sources will be found on the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca. Support the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My name's John Weir. You don't know me, but you're gonna, because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you've freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. Radical starring Kiefer Sutherland. New series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. Hi everyone. As you might have noticed, I release episodes on the 1st and the 15th of each month.

This will be my last episode for 2018. I've decided to take off the January 1st episode so I can enjoy some time with my family. Whatever you and your family celebrates, I wish you a happy holiday season and I'll be back after this with a new episode on January 15th. I also wanted to thank you guys for being patient over the last few months while I had a few more ads than usual. I couldn't do this without my sponsors and patrons because they enable me to pay for research, writing, editing, music licensing and not to mention hosting and other expenses. If the ads do bother you, please consider joining my Patreon. For only $2 a month, you get access to my special feed where you can hear my episodes ad-free and slightly earlier than everybody else. Just visit Patreon.com slash Canadian True Crime. This podcast contains course language, adult themes and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised.

The town of Wilkie is a small rural community of about 1300 people in the province of Saskatchewan, situated about an hour-and-a-half drive west of its largest city, Saskatoon. The town is named after Mr Daniel Robert Wilkie, who was the president of the Imperial Bank of Canada, and the town's website describes it as a friendly town with tree-lined streets providing a safe and healthy environment for all ages. Being a prairie province, one of the things Saskatchewan is well known for is grain farming. And this is the story of a wheat farming family who lived just outside the town of Wilkie. The 1200-acre Latimer family farm grows canola and wheat and was bought in 1948 by Bill and Mae Latimer. They had seven kids, three that Mae had with her first husband who died, and then four more that she had with her second husband, Bill Latimer. The second youngest child was Robert, who was born in 1953.

Robert was described by his older half-sister as a high-spirited little boy, but he was always kind. I don't remember him ever hurting anyone. As a teenager and young man, Robert liked to socialise and party, and got into trouble with the police a few times, including for impaired driving. At around age 21, he decided it was time to grow up and get away, and moved to British Columbia, where he worked various jobs and even got his pilot's licence. In 1977, at age 24, he felt it was time to return to his hometown. Not long after he moved back, he met a woman called Laura who lived in British Columbia and was in Wilkie visiting her grandparents. She was described as capable and smart, and he was described as friendly, kind and strong. They hit it off, fell in love and got married the following year, 1978. By this time, Bill and Mae were ready to retire from farm life, and newlyweds Robert and Laura took over the farm. While Robert worked hard on his new farm, it wasn't long before Laura became pregnant with their first child.

On November 22, 1980, Laura went into labour, and Robert drove her to the small hospital in the nearby city of North Battlefield. But an ordinary pregnancy quickly turned into a catastrophic labour. Laura would find out later that she was bleeding the whole time. The fetal heart rate monitor was broken at first, so the doctors didn't know that the baby's heart rate was low. Finally, they attached a working monitor, and upon realising the results, decided they had to induce birth straight away with forceps to get the baby out as fast as possible. When the baby girl was born, Laura described her as looking dead when she first saw her. Quote, usually a baby will have their knees drawn up to their tummy, but she was flat, just literally flat. This is Christy, and you're listening to Canadian True Crime, Episode 37. Baby Tracy lay flat because she wasn't breathing. The medical staff worked hard to resuscitate her before wheeling her away for more treatments,

stopping briefly so that Robert and Laura could quickly glance at their daughter. The next morning, Robert and Laura were told that baby Tracy was having seizures and needed better care than they were equipped to provide at a small hospital. So Tracy was taken in an ambulance to the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, the largest city in the province, where she was soon put into a medically induced coma to lessen the seizures and reduce the swelling in her brain. Her parents still hadn't held their first child. After five days, Laura was finally allowed to hold Tracy, even though she was still in the coma. Three days after that, Tracy was brought out of the coma to be observed. The seizures seemed to have stopped, so that was a success.

But the problem now was that Tracy had suffered confirmed brain damage during the period where she was without oxygen during birth. It was now a wait-and-see situation to see what effect this would have on her. Tracy was cleared for release and allowed to go home, where her good streak of no seizures continued. This was a great sign. Her mother Laura described her as a happy little baby. Things went okay until about four months in, but then Robert noticed Tracy's hand started twitching, something he also noticed when she was first born. It was happening again, the seizures. Fearing more potential brain damage, Tracy was rushed to hospital where she remained for three months while the doctors figured out the best course of action.

They came up with a cocktail of medications, which reduced the seizures down to about five or six per day. But Robert and Laura were given some bad news. It now appeared that the seizures Tracy had when she was a newborn likely resulted in additional brain damage. This was the start of a long journey for the family, as the full extent of Tracy's health issues revealed themselves gradually. Because of damage done to her breathing function and digestion, Tracy had difficulty eating, vomited frequently and had issues breathing. She was also developmentally delayed, meaning she didn't learn to crawl and walk like able-bodied babies. Tracy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a disorder that occurs before or at birth, commonly associated with oxygen deprivation, which affects the brain's ability to control the body. It affects movement, muscle tone, posture and more.

But like many disorders, cerebral palsy is on a spectrum. Some people only have a mild case, observed to be a minor physical awkwardness. But Tracy had what a doctor described as one of the worst forms she'd ever seen. Quote, her total body was involved from her head right down to her toes, so all four limbs, her brain, her back, everything was involved. In addition, Tracy had mental impairment as well. The latimers were told that Tracy would be lucky if she lived to see her 10th birthday. When Tracy was three, her mother Laura gave birth to a little boy, Brian, and the year after that, Tracy would have her first surgery. As she became a toddler, then preschool age, it was evident that she was in a lot of pain. Unfortunately, the medication she was on for seizures clashed with any strong pain relief medication, causing severe issues, so she couldn't be given anything stronger than over-the-counter medication for her pain. It did little to help the little girl.

The first surgery she had was to ease muscle tension in her left leg, but actually had the opposite effect, causing involuntary movements in her right leg, which caused her even more pain. Parents Laura and Robert struggled with the difficulties and challenges of looking after a child that had such severe issues and was in so much constant pain. But they took strength from each other. They would still cry often, but ultimately accepted that this was the way it was. In 1985, Laura gave birth to the couple's third child, a little girl called Lindsay. Tracy was now five, even though her mental age was still that of an infant. She was very close to her family and her two younger siblings. She loved when her parents rocked her gently and spent time with her. Tracy loved going to the circus, playing music, going to the pool and watching hockey, like most Canadians. She went to regular school and even rode the school bus, all providing her with additional stimulation. When Tracy was seven, she started vomiting constantly, keeping food down was an issue, and she was lacking nutrition and losing weight that she couldn't afford to lose.

At first, doctors recommend that she get a feeding tube to help with weight gain and the medication she had to take. But the latimers didn't feel right about it, finding the procedure to be too intrusive, and, quote, represented the first step on a path to preserving Tracy's life artificially. Luckily, it was determined that the extremely high dose of one of her anti-seizure medications had reached such a level that it was becoming toxic, and that was the likely cause of her increase in vomiting. She was taken off that drug and her vomiting issue seemed to die down. The latimers were obviously relieved they said no to the feeding tube. But Tracy's problems continued in other ways. Because she had an extreme form of cerebral palsy, she developed a number of conditions, her hip joints had started to dislocate, and she had scoliosis which resulted in an abnormal curvature of her back. When she was 8, the scoliosis had caused her backbone to move 50 degrees out of alignment, a significant shift that resulted in pressure on her vital organs. Her lungs and stomach were constricted, causing issues with breathing, frequent bronchitis, more vomiting, and problems swallowing.

And on top of all of this, her seizures continued. Tracy went for another surgery in 1990, designed to lengthen muscle tissues and cut tendons to relieve muscle pressure. Luckily, this surgery was more successful than the first one, and for a while, Tracy seemed to be doing better, until she wasn't anymore. Two years after that, at age 11, Tracy's hip dislocation was worsening, and her spine had curved again. This time, over 70 degrees out of alignment, much worse than before her last surgery. There were also issues with her rib cage pressing on her pelvis, which caused her a lot of pain and a strong potential to cause death. She went for yet another surgery and got L-shaped stainless steel rods put on either side of her spine, with wires to hold them in place. The rods and wires were also connected to holes drilled in her pelvis.

This was a major surgery this time, but Tracy came out of it with no issues. Her vomiting and breathing issues lessened a great deal because the pressure on her vital organs had decreased, and the rods in her back enabled her to sit up a bit better. Great progress, but Robert and Laura described her as being rigid as a board now. She couldn't be held and rocked anymore like she loved, and sleeping was extremely uncomfortable. Laura said that Tracy was never the same after that operation. Quote, she was never the happy person she used to be, ever, ever again. She couldn't cuddle anymore. And doctors were now keeping an eye on Tracy's right hip, which was showing signs of imminent dislocation, causing her severe pain.

But it was too soon after her back surgery to schedule another one. In February of 1993, when Tracy was 12, she went back for a checkup because her hip was now officially dislocated. They decided to wait a few more months for the next surgery just to give her a bit more time to recover from the last one. Tracy was now 12 and continued to need round-the-clock care. She still only had the mental capacity of a young baby and could only communicate through facial expressions, laughing and crying. Although, by now, it was almost always crying because she was constantly in excreting pain. She was immobile and bedridden and had to be carefully spoon-fed, and because of her vomiting and organ issues, gaining weight was a massive problem. In the meantime, Laura was now pregnant with a couple's fourth child and was worried that she physically wouldn't be able to look after Tracy's needs while she was heavily pregnant.

After much thought and consideration, she and Robert made the difficult decision to put Tracy in a group home in North Battlefield towards the end of Laura's pregnancy. It was the first time they had ever not cared for Tracy themselves. As soon as they felt like they were ready, when their new baby boy, Lee, was almost two months old, they brought Tracy straight back home. She did okay in the group home, but she lost a lot of weight while she was there without the benefit of her family's experience in feeding her. Not long after Tracy came home, Laura took her to another doctor's appointment to be assessed and discussed the possible next steps. Her doctor, Dr. Anne Zeus, vividly remembered that Tracy was in extreme pain. Quote, She was lying on the examining table when I came in. Her mother was holding her right leg in a fixed, flexed position with her knee in the air, and any time you tried to move that leg, Tracy expressed pain and her way of expressing pain was to cry out.

As feared, her right hip was now a major problem. Hip reconstruction wasn't an option because the ball joint was now so badly damaged. Tracy's doctor said the only thing she could recommend was removing Tracy's thigh bone, which would leave her lower leg loose without any connecting bone. The medical term for it is flail joint. Everything would be held in place by muscle and tissue. The recovery would be painful and would last around a year before things might start to get better. But worse still, this surgery would not cure Tracy's pain. She would have to undergo even more surgeries to reduce that joint pain.

And this wasn't it. That was just one hip. It was likely that the other one would eventually go too. And Tracy was now developing bed sores because of her lack of mobility. She had now lost a lot of weight and was in constant pain. The prospect of another surgery that included insertion of a feeding tube was becoming a not too distant reality. The doctor described how Tracy's post-operative pain would be severe and recovery from the surgery would take a year or longer. And remember, pain relief itself was an issue because of how it interfered with Tracy's medication.

So options to keep her comfortable and reduce her pain were almost non-existent. Tracy's already low quality of life was now deteriorating rapidly. Trying to fix one problem always led to another. Laura was at the appointment with Tracy while Robert tried to get ahead on his farm work. She was stunned and couldn't stop crying. The surgery was scheduled for November 4, 1993, in just three weeks' time. Laura then had to go home and tell her husband the latest devastating update. Quote,

He was horrified. We held each other and we cried. I said to him that really I thought it would be better for Tracy if she died. It would be the best thing for her. I told him I wished we could call Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Dr. Kevorkian was an American pathologist and public champion of euthanasia and physician assisted death. Later on that day, Robert received a phone call from a social worker saying they had a permanent spot for Tracy in a nursing home. Robert and Laura were quick to say no.

That may have eased their life, but it wasn't going to ease Tracy's pain. It was Sunday, October 24, 1993, and the family were having breakfast before church. Robert decided to stay home with Tracy while Laura attended with the three younger kids. It was an uneventful day. When they got home at about 1.30pm, Tracy was napping. Laura went into her room to wake her, finding her placed in her usual sleeping position with pillows placed strategically to help with her hip. But as Laura looked closely, she realized something wasn't right. She called out to Robert telling him to call the hospital.

She went to pick Tracy up and found her legs were relaxed and floppy, not stiff like they usually were. Her face was an odd color. Laura suddenly realized that Tracy had passed away. She actually felt happy for her daughter. Quote, Finally, something has gone Tracy's way. At 2pm, Robert called the RCMP and told them that their daughter had died in her sleep. When the coroner arrived at the Latimer residence, he found the whole family sitting around Tracy's bed with Laura feeding two-month-old Lee. They were asked to leave the room so the coroner could examine Tracy's body.

After that, the coroner spoke with Robert about what happened in the time before Tracy's death. He said that she'd been in pain, so he put her to bed at around 12.30pm. The coroner couldn't see any obvious cause of death for Tracy, so decided to order an autopsy. Robert tried to suggest that instead he'd like to have his daughter cremated, but was told that obviously cremation would need to wait until after the autopsy. The autopsy was conducted the next day in Saskatoon by Dr. Ranjit Waghre, who also couldn't find any obvious cause of death. However, he noticed possible signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, so sent a blood sample for testing.

As everyone was waiting for the test results, 12-year-old Tracy Latimer was laid to rest privately on October 27, 1993, three days after she died. Carbon monoxide prevents the blood from carrying oxygen. At 8% blood saturation, a person will have dizziness, nausea, and convulsions within about 45 minutes. At 32%, it starts to become life-threatening, and death can occur within 30 minutes of continuous exposure. The test results were back. Tracy Latimer's blood was 80% saturated with carbon monoxide. She had been deliberately poisoned, and there was only one suspect, the only person there with her while the rest of the family was a church.

Her father, Robert Latimer. At this point, Tracy's death turned into a homicide investigation, and the RCMP started to prepare their case to request a search warrant of the Latimer house. On the morning of November 4, 10 days after Tracy's death, and coincidentally the day her hip surgery had been scheduled, the RCMP arrived at the Latimer house. Robert answered the door and was told he was being taken in for questioning about the murder of his daughter. They accompanied him into the house to change his boots, and when they came out, Laura was standing on the porch with baby Lee. She asked Robert where he was going, and he replied that he was going to North Battlefield Station with the RCMP.

Laura replied, Why are you going back there? Robert told her to ask the police. While he was taken back to the police station, one RCMP officer stayed behind to talk to Laura. He sat down at the kitchen table, told her they had Tracy's autopsy results back, and gave her a copy of the search warrant. She was clearly puzzled about what was going on. She and the kids were taken to the station so that the search could be conducted. At the police station, Robert was read his rights and asked if he wanted a lawyer. He shook his head and said no.

This was a small town, and the RCMP officers knew Robert and his reputation for being a good, hardworking family man. Sergeant Ken Lyons was gentle with him when he said, Bob, after considering all that is known, I have no doubt that you caused your daughter's death. He added that he knew Robert didn't want to do what he did, and that he knew that Robert loved Tracy very much. Robert nodded. Sergeant Lyons noticed his eyes were heavy with tears. Quote, This is something you felt you had to do for your daughter, isn't it Bob? Robert didn't reply. Sergeant Lyons said that everyone knew Robert had been a loving, caring father and it was obvious that he acted out of love.

Robert still said nothing. He was asked the question a few more times before finally replying, Quote, My priority was to put her out of pain. By now he had tears streaming down his face. Sergeant Lyons was concerned that Robert still had no lawyer and was about to make a statement, so reminded him that he could be charged with murder based on what he was about to say. Robert said that yes, he agreed. They couldn't find a recording device, so Robert gave a full verbal statement which was written down.

While giving his statement, he was slightly more composed, although he broke down a few times. This is what Robert said happened. After Laura's meeting with the doctor on October 12, 1993 and hearing about the plan to remove Tracy's upper thigh bone, leaving it only connected by muscle and tissue, Robert secretly decided that enough was enough. He would put an end to his daughter's pain. Over the next two weeks, he tried to plan out how he was going to do it. He considered giving Tracy an overdose of valium. He thought about shooting her in the head, but he settled on carbon monoxide poisoning.

On October 24, 1993, after Laura and the other kids left for church at about 11am, Robert went outside and got a suction hose for a water tank from the shed by the barn. He put the hose in the back of his 1982 GMC truck and then drove to his workshop on the farm property where he picked up rags, two big boxes and a hacksaw. He put these in the back of the truck. He hooked the hose up to some pipes and then put everything on the back. Robert then drove into another shed on the property and left the truck inside. He then went back to the main house and got Tracy, who had been sitting in her wheelchair.

He carried his daughter back to the shed where the truck was. He placed her in the truck and propped her up with a bundle of the rags. He then covered her body with a sleeping bag and two old coats from the shop, leaving her face exposed. Next, he cut the hose with the hacksaw and hooked it up to the exhaust pipe of the truck. It was about 11.30am when Robert says he put the hose through the back sliding window into the truck and turned the motor on. He climbed onto the back of the truck and sat on a tyre so he could keep an eye on Tracy to see if she cried out from inside. He said he decided that if she did, he would put an end to the whole plan. He said he let the engine run for about 30 minutes, seeing the windows fog up as the carbon monoxide filled the cab of the truck.

Tracy never cried out. She jerked a few times. Robert said that after seven or eight minutes, she made three or four coughing noises and then nothing. She passed away. At around 12 noon, Robert said he turned the truck off and then drove up to the house. He then carried the lifeless body of his daughter back into the house and put her in bed in her usual sleeping position, parted with pillows to ease her discomfort. When Laura came home, she found Tracy laying in bed. Music

Robert told the police that Laura had no idea about his plans before Tracy's death and he never told her what he did. Quote, her feelings were no different than mine. She just said she wished she would call Jack Kevorkian. She never participated in any planning, just thoughts in general. He picked the Sunday to put the plan into action because he knew his family would be at church and that was one of the rare occasions where he'd be alone with Tracy. When Robert finished writing out his confession, police took him back to his farm. They asked him to show them the equipment he used to end Tracy's life. Robert was videotaped as he described and physically showed police how he did it.

He said that on November the 3rd, the day before he was brought in for questioning, he cut the hose he used up and burned it in a barrel to destroy the evidence. The statement was read back to Robert and he signed it. The RCMP officers were nervous about the fact that he didn't want a lawyer there, worried that this may come back to bite them at a later date when presenting the confession as evidence. In the book Robert Latimer, A Story of Justice and Mercy, author Gary Boslaw wrote that Robert was not legally sophisticated and sometimes gave the impression he had disdain for lawyers.

Quote, Perhaps it was not exactly a disdain, but the attitude of a self-sufficient and somewhat unworldly and stubborn man who felt that he'd done nothing wrong and could take care of himself. Criminals need lawyers and he felt very strongly that he had committed no crime. The RCMP kept asking Robert about getting a lawyer and finally he mentioned a local solicitor he'd worked with on some farming stuff and would think about it some more. In the end, Sergeant Lyons ended up calling the lawyer himself.

Robert was arrested that day and charged with first-degree murder. In the meantime, Laura was finally told that her husband had confessed to being responsible for their daughter's death. She would say she was shocked when she found out and angry with him for a few days, but ultimately she said that she resigned herself to the fact that what happened was the best thing for Tracy. I know the people who have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you've freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it.

Yeah, I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch. Radical starring Kiefer Sutherland. New series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.

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Robert Latimer Robert Latimer spent eight days in jail before he was released on bail. While out, he was not allowed to leave the province without permission, he had to report to the police every Friday and he could not drink any alcohol. The story became huge and attracted a great amount of media attention, both locally and nationally. The Latimers were a simple farming family and didn't like the attention, even from the sympathizers, and there were a lot of them. They believed what Robert did was selfless and heroic. He did it for Tracy, so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

There were also a lot of people on the other side of the fence, made up mainly of religious and disability advocacy groups. They condemned what Robert did, saying he took the life of a child who couldn't provide consent, and if he wasn't given a severe sentence, it would become, quote, open season on the disabled. Tracy Latimer's death would become one of Canada's best known and most certainly controversial cases of what the media coined mercy killing. Mercy killing is defined as the killing of someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any further suffering. But in the eyes of Canadian law, when you take a look in a very black and white way, what Robert Latimer did was not legal. This case was closely aligned with the space that includes voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted deaths.

Although the terms are often used interchangeably, they are actually different. Voluntary euthanasia is when a doctor assists a patient to die through a lethal agent. This means that the doctor actually takes an active role in the patient's death, and the patient is conscious and mentally able to give consent to the help. Voluntary euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. And as of 2016, it became legal in Canada. Next year, the Australian state of Victoria will be added to the list. Physician-assisted death is when a doctor prescribes a certain medication in a lethal dose and instructs the patient in how to take the prescription.

The doctor does not physically assist the patient in their death, the only help implemented death plan. Physician-assisted death has many names including physician-assisted suicide and death with dignity. Physician-assisted suicide is not an accepted term by everyone though. Many feel that the word suicide has negative connotations and is hurtful to the cause. Physician-assisted death is legal in Canada as of 2016 and is also legal in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and several states of the US with more coming along next year. It should be noted that suicide tourism is a thing with people travelling to other countries to do it legally. Canada has bypassed this by mandating that physician-assisted death and voluntary euthanasia are only available to residents eligible for Canadian health care coverage.

The ways in which voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted death is defined and practiced depends on several different factors. There is often a requirement that the patient have a terminal illness with a prognosis of six or less months to live. The patient must be mentally competent and be of a decision-making capacity at the time of death. Advanced directives are not allowed in Canada. For example, a person with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease can't give advanced consent for voluntary euthanasia at a time when their memory has declined so much that they aren't able to give that clear consent anymore. And most jurisdictions require the patient to be a legal adult. In Canada, as of legalisation in 2016, two health care providers must sign off on the request and the patient has to wait 10 days after their request to receive their assistance, a cooling off period. At the time of Tracy's death, both physician-assisted death and voluntary euthanasia were not legal.

But it would have been a moot point in this case anyway, because at 12 years of age, with the mental capacity of a four-month-old baby, Tracy Latimer was far from being a legal adult who could give consent. Disability rights advocates were vocal in asserting that Tracy's death was just one of countless examples of extreme abuse of people with disabilities. Many questioned whether what Robert did was a mercy killing, or whether he simply committed the murder because the emotional pain of seeing his daughter in such extreme pain became too much for him to bear. Dr Dick Sobsi, a professor at the University of Alberta, an expert on violence against people with disabilities, spoke out, saying that these attitudes accepting what Robert had done was a symptom of discrimination and violence against people with disabilities and a fundamental cause of future killings and abuse. The Council of Canadians with Disabilities, or CCD, a national equality rights organization of people with disabilities, mobilized resources to provide an ongoing counter-argument in response to the strong outpouring of support for Robert Latimer. Their argument is that one human life should not be valued over another because one person has a disability, and the actions of the perpetrator should not be judged less harshly because he decided that his daughter was better off dead. They said that a human life is not to be snuffed out because another person feels their life is no longer worth living. It is not their decision to make. The CDC circulated an open letter to Canadians, asking for support with their position that the murder of a person with a disability is to be treated the same as a murder of any other person.

Dr Sobsi said, quote, People with cerebral palsy are among the most frequent and are sometimes among the most vulnerable victims of crime. They are often killed by their own family members and others close to them. Their lives deserve and require equal protection of the law, not special exemptions for the people who kill them. Another disability advocate said, Robert Latimer murdered his daughter. He did not commit suicide for her. 41-year-old Robert Latimer went on trial for the murder of his daughter Tracy, starting on November 7, 1994. This wasn't going to be an easy trial. This would be a battle of law, but with the complicated and poorly defined overlay of ethics and morality. The Crown decided to try him for first or second degree murder, which carry a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years. In other similar cases, more sympathetic prosecutors have decided to go for manslaughter instead, which allows for more flexibility in sentencing than the 10-year minimum that Robert was up for if found guilty.

That said, murder was technically correct as far as the law went. Robert had confessed that he was responsible for Tracy's death. The Crown's argument was that, yes, Tracy was in pain, but her parents could have had doctors install the feeding tube and continue with her planned surgery. Robert had no right to wipe out a precious life. The prosecutor, Randy Kirkham, said, quote, it is not open season on the disabled. The defense argued that Tracy was on a downhill slide and that her pain had increased exponentially in the previous year. There was no medical way to help her, so Robert performed a mercy killing. He acted out of necessity to end his daughter's suffering. During trial, Laura Latimer testified that Tracy's birth was much sadder than her death, quote, we lost Tracy when she was born. Laura talked about Robert as a father, describing how he often bathed and fed Tracy, cleaned up after the many vomiting incidents, changed her diapers and cared for her in all the ways she needed, quote,

he was a wonderful loving father for Tracy. He was always there for her. He loved her very, very much and Tracy loved him. The Crown Prosecutor referred to Robert as foul, callous, cold, calculating and not motivated by anything other than making his own life easier. The Crown Prosecutor was cautioned by the judge for these statements. The jury took less than four hours to deliberate Robert's fate and came back with a guilty verdict. They chose second degree murder, not first degree murder. There was some controversy over this because the judge told the jury that if they found Robert guilty, they could choose either first or second degree murder. Many argued that this led the jury to believe they had no choice but to find Robert guilty. Robert had confessed, so they couldn't exactly find him not guilty without blatant disregard for the law. But interestingly, within our legal system, it is the absolute right of an independent jury to ignore the law if they feel it is just and warranted.

This is called jury nullification. The defense isn't allowed to tell the jury about nullification and the Crown has no reason to, so this jury chose second degree murder because it was the lesser of the two verdicts on the table. They did suggest that Robert be eligible for parole as early as possible, thinking that they could have some influence over his sentence. The judge asked Robert if he had anything to say before sentencing. He said he still felt that what he did was right. Quote, it's not a crime to cut her leg off, not a crime to stick a feeding tube in her stomach, not a crime to let her lay there in pain for another 20 years. I don't think you people are being human. Robert Latimer was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of life imprisonment without parole for 10 years. The judge, Ross Wimmer, said, life was not kind to Tracy, but it was a life that was hers to make of it what she could.

Outside court, Laura Latimer criticized the fact that the Canadian justice system could lock up a good and loving father who would rock with Tracy for hours. She said to the media that, quote, whatever hell they put him through will not begin to match the hell that our little girl went through. Just over a week later, Robert appealed his conviction and was granted bail. He returned home to the farm to await his appeal sentencing. On February 23, 1995, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal heard the case, which asked the court to rule on both the conviction and the sentence, with Robert's lawyer arguing that the 10-year sentence he received was too harsh of a penalty. On July 18, 1995, the Court of Appeal upheld Robert's conviction and sentence in a vote that was 2-1. Eight months later, and almost a year after the first trial, the defence revealed they had proof that the crown prosecutor, Randy Kirkham, had ordered the RCMP to question potential jurors before the trial.

They had asked 30 prospective jurors about their beliefs on religion, abortion and mercy killings, things they shouldn't have been asked because loading a jury with jurors who hold a particular belief can have dramatic effects on the trial outcome. Of the 30 who were questioned, five actually served on the jury, nearly half. Crown prosecutor Kirkham was charged with two counts of attempting to obstruct justice, but he was later found not guilty. More importantly though, this new information provided Robert with fresh grounds for a new appeal. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Robert's appeal on February 8, 1996, and then they ordered a new trial for Robert, stating that his original confession would be kept and entered into evidence in the new trial. Robert's second trial began on October 27, 1997, just days after the fourth anniversary of Tracy's death.

She would have just turned 16. This time, Robert was only charged with second degree murder. During the trial, new crown prosecutor E.J. Newfield entered Laura Latimer's journal entries as evidence in relation to caring for Tracy. In the journal entries, Laura often wrote that Tracy was happy, alert and cheerful. Six days before her death, Laura described Tracy as quite cheerful and said she had eaten well. Other witnesses included police witnesses, the coroner, pathologist and blood analyst, as well as various medical specialists to speak on Tracy's condition and prognosis. Although the Latimer's had been told Tracy couldn't take any medications stronger than Tylenol because of possibly toxic drug interactions with her anti-seizure medication, the prosecution argued there was effective pain medication that could be given to her via a feeding tube, which of course her family had opted out of. This assertion would bother Robert for years to come.

His lawyer, Mark Brayford, asked the judge if he could use a defence called necessity, an accepted defence strategy, but one that is quite limited. It basically says that in an emergency situation, the law can't hold someone responsible when human instinct compels them to disobey a law. But the permitted scope is narrow. The person must be in imminent danger, they must have had no reasonable legal alternative and the harm inflicted by them must be proportional to the harm they avoided. Obviously, a situation where a person kills another in self-defence is the most likely situation in which this necessity defence would apply. In this case with Robert Latimer, the judge was uneasy but said he would at least hear the defence before deciding if he would allow it. It was tricky though, the defence had to make it evident that the jury could choose this option without overtly inviting them to do it. If successful, it could provide the jury with a way to express their sympathy for Robert Latimer without having to find him not guilty, which seemed wrong given his confession. Mark Brayford carefully presented Robert as a caring, honest man who found himself in a heartbreaking, desperate situation.

He went over Tracy's doctor's testimony, reiterating how much pain Tracy was in and what options were available to her, including the proposed leg surgery, which would lead to at least a year more pain, followed by a high probability that the other leg would need the same surgery. And Tracy's pain couldn't be managed because of the negative drug reaction. Tracy had poor prospects. After the defence presented this necessity defence, the judge decided not to allow it. It was a blow to the Latimers and meant that Robert's only real defence came down to the jury finding him not guilty. Mark Brayford then called four defence witnesses, two of Robert's sisters, as well as Dr Robin Menzies, a psychiatrist who had spent hours with Robert. Robert had told him, quote, I can lie in a dirty jail cell easier than Tracy can lie on the floor. Laura Latimer also testified, saying that she told Robert the night they found out about the new surgery that it would be better for Tracy if she died, quote, I knew I didn't have the courage to do it, but I wished it for her. In cross-examination, the crown talked about the diaries again, where Laura mentioned Tracy was cheerful. Laura said afterwards that she'd simply jumped on any positive sign she saw in Tracy and wrote about it, as you would expect a mother to do in dire circumstances. It was not intended to be an accurate depiction of Tracy's actual condition and demeanour.

Many disability advocates attended the trial, including Rita Wolf, the mother of a severely disabled 13-year-old called Siobhan Wolf, who she also brought to the trial. During a break, she spoke to the media, quote, Do you know what it's like to hear that killing your child is defined as an act of love? When love is what it takes to wake up with new energy every morning to give care and comfort to a child who is absolutely dependent on her parents? She said that what happened to Tracy Latimer was not an act of love, quote, She was killed the day the love ran out. It's time these barnyard ethics are put to a stop. After a week of trial, it was time for the jury to deliberate again. This time, their options were to find Robert guilty of second-degree murder or acquit him. The jury asked Justice Ted Noble if they could influence the length of the sentence, and he said yes. Unfortunately though, he didn't tell them that there was still a 10-year minimum sentence for murder, so their influence would be minimal. The jury found Robert guilty of second-degree murder. Laura jumped up from her seat, slammed a railing and started screaming no, over and over again.

Robert turned around from the prisoner's box and said to his wife, It's okay, it's okay. At sentencing, several jurors were clearly shocked to learn that no matter what their suggestion, their verdict meant an automatic life sentence with no access to parole for at least 10 years. Some jurors gasped and covered their mouths with their hands and two began to cry. The jury then made an unusual recommendation that Robert Latimer be considered for parole after just a year. A recommendation only though because it was not enforceable. Robert was released on bail pending his sentencing. At the time, public polls indicated that 73% of Canadians shared the jury's conclusion that Robert Latimer acted out of compassion and that his sentence was too harsh. The same poll showed that 43% of Canadians favoured the legalisation of mercy killing.

Two weeks later, Robert's lawyer applied for a constitutional exemption from the 10-year minimum sentence for second-degree murder and it was granted. The first time a constitutional exemption has been granted in Canada on conviction of murder. Disability advocates were vocal about the maximum sentence being imposed, pointing out that there would have been no question regarding Robert Latimer's sentence if Tracy had not had a disability. Making an exemption in this case would create a legal double standard in which people with disabilities can be murdered without fear of punishment, they argued. Justice Ted Noble did not agree. He said the sentence would be cruel and unusual punishment for the crime that Robert Latimer committed. Quote, The judge stated though that Robert did need to serve some jail time in order to keep people from following in his footsteps.

The judge said that the law recognises that the moral culpability or the moral blameworthiness of murder can vary from one convicted offender to another. He called Tracy Latimer's murder a rare act of homicide that was committed for caring and altruistic reasons. That is why for want of a better term, this is called compassionate homicide. Judge Noble sentenced Robert to two years prison, less a day. He was to spend the first year in jail and the second year confined to his farm. Robert's supporters were ecstatic. His detractors were incensed. Hugh Scheer, chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities said, But the court battles weren't over yet.

On December 17, 1997, the Saskatchewan Crown appealed Robert's new sentence and he was released on bail again awaiting appeal. The court of appeal reinstated his mandatory 10-year sentence. He would still have to serve it all. Again, Robert appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. This time bringing up the fact that in his previous trial, the prosecution mentioned a more effective pain relief that could have been used to treat Tracy's pain. Robert wanted to be told exactly what this was. But the Supreme Court upheld his sentence. In their ruling, they said it wasn't so much about a special kind of drug that could be used. But more that it was about the fact that the drug could be administered more effectively via a feeding tube

and that the proposed surgery was also designed to lessen Tracy's pain eventually, even though she would have to go through a year of severe pain first. Perhaps this wasn't communicated very well to Robert because he seemed to think they were withholding the name of a new medicine that could have provided a solution. He would continue to stew on this fact. As he served his full sentence, Robert Latimer went to many different prisons. While at William Head, he was allowed to have three days alone in a family house with Laura every couple of months. Robert continued to help on the farm with the assistance of a farm manager. Robert had and continues to have many supporters.

His supporters raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the family over the years and hundreds of people even offered to each serve a month of prison time for Robert instead. In December of 2007, 14 years after Tracy's death, Robert was finally up for day parole. The parole board asked him about when he first found out about Tracy's need for more surgery and recommendation of the feeding tube, after which time he decided to end her life instead. The panel asked him why didn't he get a second medical opinion, why didn't he talk to someone else? He replied that they'd spent almost 13 years talking to medication professionals and saw how Tracy's condition worsened with each surgery.

Quote, One of the panelists suggested that Robert didn't actually know if Tracy wanted to die or not. Robert replied, His parole was denied because the board members felt that he'd still believed he'd done the right thing and showed no remorse for killing his daughter. He appealed that decision and three months later the parole board appealed a vision overturned it, releasing Robert immediately to day parole. He was released on full parole in December of 2010.

In 2011, Robert was interviewed by Anne-Marie Dussault, a TV host from Quebec and current TV host of Radio Canada. She asked him about when he was watching Tracy as she died. Was he saddened or haunted? It was the right thing to do. She'd had enough. That was it. We were done. No one in their right mind would want to exist in that kind of a condition. She died a peaceful death.

To carry on with more medical procedures, even the back operation, there was a 10% risk she wouldn't survive that. We didn't want her dying in a hospital. It was a better death she had at home. I put her back in bed. They saw that as just more criminal activity, hiding from them. They wanted an immediate confession and there were other kids involved. It was more important that they say goodbye to Tracy and we had a funeral. Then the police came and like 10 days later, it was important to have those few days. They make a big deal out of being deceived in that. The doctor asked what happened and I said she just went to sleep.

From that, they gained a whole lot of deceit. She did just go to sleep and it was a very peaceful death. We'd seen the results of the back operation. That's a pretty serious thing. It's torture. It's mutilation, not to the righteous. It's God's will in their eyes, but they're a pretty sadistic bunch. You can't just have a guinea pig, someone wondering if they'll survive if you put in a feeding tube or probably blood transfusions or in some cases when Tracy had an operation, she would lose more blood than she had in her body.

How do you know for sure that that's what she would have wanted since she was suffering from a very severe case of several paralysis? How can you be sure that that would have been her choice? The only thing she could do was cry or she did laugh in times when she wasn't distressed. But you don't have any pure guidance. You just have to think about what would you want for yourself in a situation like that. It's pretty clear. I would never want to go through anything like that, nor would the vast majority of Canadians. They're pretty clear too in the surveys.

They don't want to be force-fed with a tube, mutilated, and Tracy had gone through a lot with the back operations, the rods in her spine. Canadians don't want to butcher a child like Tracy in general, only the righteous. There's a lady that wrote in about how she enjoyed lemon-ranked pie through a feeding tube. Like, let's get real. I mean, let's have a little bit of logic here. It was clear that Robert was still stewing over medications he thought the Supreme Court were refusing to name. They've really got to come clean on this medication thing, because that's the most crucial element of their decision to imprison me for life, and it's a fabrication.

And there's religious influences, like the Catholic Church was there intervening at the Supreme Court, as was the Ontario government. I mean, they were more concerned about me than they were about Carla Hamalta, and these things were going on about the same time. And so they've achieved what their goals were. You mentioned Carla Hamalta. She's completely free now. You're not. Well, she's free now, and I've got a life sentence with a 50-mile radius for life. In 2018, Robert Latimer applied to Prime Minister Trudeau, asking for either a pardon or a new trial. According to Robert's lawyer, quote, A pardon would offer a glimpse of mercy, compassion, and justice that the legal system and the medical system did not afford to the Latimers.

Obviously, this set off a new round of arguments with those on each side of defence as to whether Robert should receive a pardon. Over the years, Robert has been criticised for not coming forward immediately after Tracy's death. When he was asked if he still would have confessed had the truth not come out through that autopsy, he said he didn't know. He felt he did what had to be done and just wanted to move on with his busy life. He said he would do the same thing again if the circumstances were the same, quote, The legal system can punish me if it wants to. Laura Latimer supported her husband throughout the entire process, and they're still married. In an interview with McLean's magazine just after Robert's first trial, Laura Latimer was asked what Tracy's birth meant to them, quote,

Tracy brought our family closer together. She loved our family. She changed our lives for the better, and our children's lives for the better. They can look past a person's disabilities to see the person. It was an honour to have known her. Many Canadians are supportive of Robert Latimer and the decision he made. In fact, a whole new category of murder has been proposed to deal with these kinds of offences, compassionate homicide. It was proposed in the 1999 final report of the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. A group of people still believe that Robert was unequivocally wrong, arguing that Tracy's death was in effect a hate crime against the disabled. She never consented to it, and Tracy's severe disability didn't justify what her father had done. In 2002, Professor Dick Sobsi of the University of Alberta announced to the media that statistics show that there had been an increase in child murders

after Tracy Latimer's death and the outpouring of support for Robert. Tracy died in 1993. Between 1990 and 1994, the number of Canadian children killed by their parents averaged about 34 each year. But in the four years after Tracy's death, the number increased to an average of 49. In 1997 alone, there were 62 cases of children killed by their parents in Canada. About half of all these cases reported that they had acted on the belief they were doing it for altruistic reasons, meaning they believed that death was in the child's best interest. Professor Sobsi called it altruistic philicide, with 3% reporting that they committed the act because of illness, injury or disability of the victim. Jim Dirksen, a disability rights advocate, said, quote, To exempt people who kill us from the consequences of their murders, based on the assertion of compassion as motivation, is to put every disabled person at great risk.

October 24, 2018 was the 25th anniversary of Tracy Latimer's death. The Council of Canadians with Disabilities announced that it was going to set up a Facebook page in memory of Tracy, a virtual archive of information on her. Their goal is to ensure that the courts receive a perspective on Tracy Latimer's life and death that is free from what they called ableist bias, a viewpoint that sees a life with disabilities as a life not worth living. To this day, this case continues to spark much debate. For further reading on this, I recommend the book Robert Latimer, a story of justice and mercy by Gary Boslaw. It dives deep into the entire thing, dissecting the trials, ethical and moral quandaries, and gives a lot of insight into Robert Latimer as a person. I should tell you that it is sympathetic to his cause. I think it's actually the only book on this case. If you wanted to know more about Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the American pathologist and euthanasia proponent, I highly recommend the episode that Dark Topic did on it.

He just called it Dr. Kevorkian. It is also sympathetic to the cause. I've linked both of these recommendations in the show notes. This week's podcast suggestion is True Crime Bullshit, an investigative podcast about American serial killer, Israel Keys. This is a podcast by Josh Hallmark of Our Americana, who I've recommended to you before. Josh is an amazing storyteller and this new podcast has been ages in the making. Here's a preview. In March of 2012, Israel Keys was pulled over outside of Lufkin, Texas. And in that moment, hundreds of lives would be forever changed, including mine. Join me on this strange, terrifying and emotional journey as I attempt to find the missing, understand a killer, explore the impacts of crime, reconcile with those left behind, and subvert the genre of true crime. In the FBI files, they found images of over 40 missing persons on his computers.

I think it's fair to say that Israel Keys had a fetish about missing people, which is why he wanted to ensure that his victims didn't get found. True Crime Bullshit is available now on Apple Podcasts and all your favorite podcatchers. Go to www.TrueCrimeBullshit.com for more information. Today I want to say a huge thank you to these patrons. Tyler A, Teresa C, Blair T, Tanya M, Laurie M, Eric P, Jackie P, Elizabeth C, Alexandra P, Jack B, Sarah B, Jack Luna from the Dark Topic podcast, Godzilla H, Nancy M, and Jen N. This episode of Canadian True Crime was researched by Hailey Gray, written by me, and audio production was by Eric Crosby. The host of the Beyond Bazaar True Crime podcast voiced the disclaimer, and the Canadian True Crime theme song was written by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back on January 15th with another Canadian True Crime story.

In the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season. See you then. you you we're you don't know me but you're gonna cuz I know the people that have been watching you learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself that people like you and trust you trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch.