A letter from a Friend of Robert Latimer on Fathers Day

June 17, 2001

Dear Sir:

For those of us once active in careers among small children enduring extreme terminal pain, the memory of their piercing screams which could not be placated medically, this is a special day. It is a day to voice concern.
It is a day which generates the urgent need to write yet another letter in defence of Robert Latimer's resolution of his daughter Tracy's hopeless situation. On Father's Day, thousands of supporters across the nation are joined in trying to honour the deeply felt humanity of Robert Latimer. For a man of extraordinary courage to act according to the Golden Rule, of doing to others as you would have them do to you, was an act of tragic proportions. But as Robert Latimer has said, who would wish to be forced to live out the last moment of "natural life" in "unnaturally sadistic" extreme incurable pain and suffering?
There is no need to review the Latimer case at this point. Both the Government and the people of Canada know it well. The majority of Canadians demand his release from seven years of detention by an administration intent on manipulation for political ends. Robert Latimer is not a proponent of euthanasia as an issue to be embraced by the public. He is a father who may have loved his family too deeply, with a compassion unsuitable to the law of the day.
The law chose not to discriminate between: 1. the criminal 2. the campaigner for euthanasia 3. the driven father overwhelmed by the depth of suffering of a beloved child, who rose to the duty he felt so arbitrarily forced upon him by his profound sense of compassion, humanity and bravery.
One recalls Herman Melville's great classic sea story of nineteenth century literature and opera fame, "Billy Budd". The central figure, Billy himself, is a tragic victim in the heroic struggle for "The Rights of Man." His name has lived on. So may indeed the name of Robert Latimer symbolize injustice perpetrated by the law. From the notorious case of Wilbur Coffin, publicized by author Jacques Hebert in "J'Accuse" half a century ago, to today's Sophonow case, Canadian justice has so often presented a picture of blunder and confusion. May a new day dawn!

Yours truly,

(Mrs.) Rosemarie Fox
Hudson, Quebec

Written in memory of Geoffrey E.N. Fox, PhD., who forty years ago spoke to me of the importance of the Wilbur Coffin case publicized by Jacques Hebert in his book "J'Accuse. He continued throughout his life to voice concern over the Canadian judicial system up to and including the Robert Latimer case. Since his death, in late 1998, I have tried to react to events on his behalf, knowing him to have been a person of profound humanity and active concern for others, despite his oft repeated phrase "the law is the law."