The Tracy Latimer Case, the Gutting of Public Services and the Rights of the Disabled

There are supporters of Robert Latimer who will argue that Latimer was justified in killing his daughter because healthcare has been gutted. There is no denying that public services has been gutting and that this has been harmful to the disabled. Programs that are beneficial to the disabled include vocational services, welfare, disability, mental health housing and healthcare. That being said, the fact that an oppressed person is denied public does not justify the killing of that oppressed people. Does the fact that blacks in the US are disproporionately unemployed, disproportianately jailed mean that lynching is justified? Does the fact that first nations people in Canada are segregated on reserves justify cop terror against natives? There are many arguments made by racists of this sort such as "blacks were better off during slavery", "Hitler was an asset to the Jewish cause" etc.

As for the claim by some that the Latimer case is "an example of rural people being blamed for their own oppression". The killers of Matthew Shepard and Gwen Araujuo took place in rural towns. Would condemning the killing of Matthew Shepard and Gwen Araujuo be "blaiming the victim"? The KKK has a strong foothold in the southern states in the US and the Prairies in Canada both of which have been historically rural. Does that make opposing fascist terror "blaiming the victim". The scabs and the gun thugs, the nucleus of the fascist movement, are generally recruited from the lumpenproletariat. The lumpenproletariat are oppressed, so is one to assume that the fascists aren't a threat to the working class or the oppressed or that opposing the fascists is "blaiming the victims for their own oppression".

As for the argument by some that Robert Latimer and Tracy Latimer "suffered together" I personally think this is absurd. Their are plenty of cases of parents of the disabled being bigoted towards their own disabled children. Do racists "suffer together" with racially minorities? Do homophobes "suffer together" with gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Do misogynists "suffer together" with women? I would personally have to answer no to all of those.

Comradely,

M.G.