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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 11:37:58 -0500
From: ccd <ccd@pcs.mb.ca>
To: cfrazee@netserver.web.apc.org, dawncan@mortimer.com,
    jderksen@mbnet.mb.ca, gwolbrin@acs.ucalgary.ca, mouffe@dsuper.net,
    hvlug@dowco.com, pdanfort@sk.sympatico.ca
Subject: Letter from Eric Norman to Tony Burman at the CBC National

Attached you will find a copy of the letter send to the Executive Producer
of the CBC National from CCD.

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November 27, 1997


Tony Burman		FAX:  416-205-6393
Executive Producer
The National
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1E6

Dear Sir:

RE:  Concerns Regarding Portrayal of Persons Having Certain Kinds of Disabilities

This letter has been prompted by a number of concerns that individuals, associated with our network of cross-disability groups, have registered with us over the past days.  They relate to the issue of journalistic balance and are specifically directed toward  your program's Latimer story coverage, since the beginning of the second trial at the end of October of this year.  We particularly have in mind the program's second feature known as the Magazine.  I hope the following observations will be of help to you in future assessments of how, perhaps, more judicious formatting could better serve the interests of everyone in the community regardless of whether or not they live with disabilities--the nature of such disabilities, or what the extent of such disabilities might involve.

I will begin with last night's show, featuring an interview with Robert and Laura Latimer by host Hannah Gartner.  Consensus here is that your assumption, that providing 30 minutes of network prime time solely to the interests of a man who has been convicted by two juries of 2nd degree murder, is definitely questionable.   Everyone is aware that murderers of the able-bodied are not so favourably treated, in relation to the court of public opinion, as have been the Latimers.  What can the message be, our supporters wonder,  in a circumstance where the slayer of a disabled child has ample opportunity and more to, in effect, pervert public opinion to adopt his "unique" view of rehabilitation for severely disabled persons?  Could it be that, as he claims, the system is treating him unfairly to the point that drastic measures are required if an injustice is to be avoided?  


                                                            .../2

Mr. Tony Burman, Executive Director
November 27, 1997                                          Page 2

Just a further gloss on Latimer as ideologue.  We needn't disbelieve him when he says he isn't advocating anything.  He doesn't have to, and is probably wisest not to; his crime represents him well enough for all practical purposes.  Further, in a context where the Latimers were able to speak at length and unchallenged about such matters as "unusual surgery, feeding tubes, the breakage of bones, "mutilation" and suchlike, a Hana Gartner--with no knowledge of the frequency of use of these interventions--was little or no help in terms of the furtherance of public knowledge regarding these matters.  

Yet this interview had some redeeming features, some significant insights into the kind of man Robert Latimer really is, and in his own words at that; at least it did for those who really listened (which is not, in our experience, a typical function of the members of most TV audiences).  In fact, we are far less favourably disposed to the way disabled persons' interests were ignored in the Friday, November 5 Terrence McKennagh interview.  In that segment, a selection of jurors were invited, in every way conceivable, to second guess their decision to find inconformity to all the evidence and convict Robert Latimer.  Latimer's sterling character and status as a loving father at the time he actually committed the crime was taken as a given through that entire interview.  By its termination, viewers of CBC TV had no reason not to be convinced that Tracy Latimer wasn't half the victim the poor jurors were in their hopelessly no-win situation, mere functionaries, as they were in t!
he!
 ser
vice of a pitiless judicial system.  I can't recall even as much as a single allusion to the increased jeopardy, for disabled and other vulnerable people, that would be the direct consequence of opening up manslaughter to a compassionate homicide defense.  

Both these program segments were in marked contrast to the way that both The National and The Magazine took obvious care to provide good, balanced coverage on the day the sentence was brought down.  That, in our view, represented a truly conscientious attempt to bring out all the relevant points of both sides of this controversy.  



                                                            .../3

Mr. Tony Burman, Executive Producer
November 27, 1997                                          Page 2

We recommend that since CBC no longer maintains an equitable portrayals officer, you might establish a consultation arrangement with, possibly, senior staff at "Moving On, the successor to Disability Network.  Also, the office staff at CCD will make themselves available to queries from you relating to the equitable portrayal of persons with disabilities.  The communications officer at CCD is Mel Graham, and our national co-ordinator is Mr. Laurie Beachell.

Thank you for your attention to our concerns.  

Sincerely yours





Eric Norman
Chairman
Council of Canadians with Disabilities

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