At a mid-March 2005 meeting with federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, a high profile CCLA delegation called for the early release of jailed Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer. In the late 1990s, Latimer was convicted of second-degree murder for having ended the life of his severely disabled 12-year-old daughter. According to the trial judge, the motive was to relieve the unremitting pain that Latimer believed the girl was suffering. But, since second-degree murder carries a mandatory minimum sentence, the Saskatchewan farmer is now serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years.

According to CCLA, the Latimer case represents “the most poignant example of the evil in minimum sentences ... It is palpably unfair for a compassionate father who misbehaves out of love to receive the same penalty as, for example, a malevolent robber who misbehaves out of greed.”

In addition to requesting an early release for Latimer, the CCLA delegation urged the minister to abolish the system of mandatory minimum sentences. While expressing some uncertainty about how his office could handle the Latimer case, Cotler was more forthcoming about such punishments in general, “I have looked at all the evidence and all the studies, and they have not persuaded me that mandatory minimums are either effective or necessary.”

Participating in the CCLA delegation were former Conservative immigration minister Ronald Atkey, former NDP Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney, Quebec law professor Giséle Côté-Harper, and CCLA staffers Alan Borovoy and Alexi Wood. A CCLA petition two years ago gathered more than 60,000 signatures across Canada calling for Latimer’s release and for the abolition of mandatory minimum sentences.