We Will Survive

By Catherine Frazee

October 23, 1997, marked the fourth anniversary of a frightening and controversial death. Tracy Latimer of Saskatchewan was just 12 years old when her father took her life. Tracy, who had multiple disabilities, has become a symbol for vulnerable people everywhere --and her murder a tangible example of the peril we face if society continues to harbour and promote myths about life with a disability.

Human rights consultant Catherine Frazee, formerly with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, was present at a Toronto vigil marking Tracy Latimer’s death and honouring her life. Catherine delivered the following remarks, which articulately express and celebrate the rights of all citizens with disabilities... to live.



Persons with disabilities across Canada have come together today in remembrance of Tracy Latimer -- a child whom most of us never met, but with whom we feel a deep connection.

We come together to honour Tracy as a whole person -- not the ghostly distortion that has been projected by the man who took her life and by those who have condoned her murder.

We come together with the conviction that Tracy was fully human -- born with all of the capacity for love and hope and joy and connection that is the birthright of every person.

We come together saddened and enraged that these capacities, these fundamentally human qualities, have been and continue to be overlooked by thousands of Canadians who feel comfortable and even righteous in their shallow understanding of disability.

There was no excuse for Tracy’s murder. And there is no excuse for complacent parroting of myths and stereotypes that haunt our community -- the myth that disability is a tragedy, that we who have disabilities are deficient or damaged, and that suffering and loss are the central components of our lives.

There is no excuse for the colossal failure of imagination whereby persons outside of the disability experience observe the shape and function of our bodies and declare themselves unable to conceive of living life as we do. There is no excuse for the outrageous presumption that life cannot be lived well simply because others cannot imagine the lived experience of disability.

There is no excuse for the colossal arrogance in the belief that a person must walk, talk, see, hear, feed and bathe herself independently in order to live a meaningful life; that a person must be articulate, vigorous and pain-free in order to be happy and content on this earth.

We must challenge these twin foes of ignorance and arrogance at every opportunity, for we have seen where they lead and we know how they imperil children like Tracy, adults like Tracy should have become and adults like ourselves.

Who among us in this community of disability has not been endangered in this climate of ignorance and arrogance? Who has resisted the confusion and self-doubt which it breeds? Is my gnarly body really worth the effort it takes to keep it moving through its daily tasks? Are my thoughts, feelings and insights really worth the time and trouble it takes for people to communicate with me? Are the financial and physical toll of my disability on my parents or my spouse really justifiable? Wouldn’t they be better off without me?

How do we inoculate ourselves against this deadly enemy? It isn’t easy, but it is simple. We are doing it today. We are rising above those internalized self-hating voices and daring to be a visible, vibrant, vigorous presence in this hostile world. For this, we need only commitment -- the commitment to make our lives noticed and our own authentic voices heard. The commitment to be present, centre stage when the curtain rises, overcoming our shyness, our fears and our sense of inferiority, making our creative contributions, supporting each other, celebrating with each other, believing in ourselves and each other.

Tracy Latimer. A little girl with a shortened life -- a life which was cut off before it could begin to unfold. But a life which nevertheless brought us together in our fear, outrage and sadness at its untimely end. And it is this positive result of Tracy’s tragic death which deserves recognition, deep reflection and loving transformation.

We are a community.

We are finding our voices, person by person, we are speaking our thoughts and feelings to each other and we are learning to use our voices like raindrops falling on the rock of public perception, gradually but surely eroding deeply rooted resistance to our full social and legal inclusion in the human family.

We will not be lured into an early grave by the seductive arguments that a disabled life is only dignified by death.

Of course we deserve to be here, to love and be loved, to work and to play, to grow all the way up and all the way out, to the fullest reach of our souls’ potential and for as many beautiful days and years as we can stretch it out!

We WILL live. We WILL make our lives mean something wonderful to ourselves and to those who love and respect us. We WILL speak our thoughts and feelings, paint our paintings, sing our songs. We WILL express our different values, our diversity, our commitment to ourselves and each other. We WILL remember Tracy Latimer, Ryan Wilkieson, Katie Lynn Baker, Charles Blais and too many others. And to honour their memory, WE WILL SURVIVE!

(Catherine Frazee is a member of the Canadian Abilities Foundation’s Board of Directors.)