What a pompous sanctimonious tirade you have chosen to unload in regard to David Stephan and his appearance in Prince George at Ave Maria's.
It must all seem very simple and clear-cut to someone who is not in the midst of making choices of medical care for their family in a dire and confusing situation. In the midst of an as yet undiagnosed medical emergency, it is never so straightforward.
So pious is the editorialist that he wants to override the judicial system's determination of fairness and have the parents serve every minute of a possible five years.
What is especially heinous from a journalistic point of view is not only having that one-sided lynch-mob-style editorial but to have forsaken a journalistic objectivity on the front page, which is an article, Mr. Godbout, not an editorial, by using the pejorative words "deadly dad" in the headline.
What has been missed in the case coverage back during the trial - and certainly in The Citizen's disgraceful treatment of Stephan's visit - is that meningitis has a substantial mortality rate even when conventional medical treatment is used.
Some of this is perhaps inevitable but some is also due to delays or mistakes by certified professionals in diagnosing and starting appropriate antibiotics. I have been fortunate not to have family members felled by meningitis but no small number of them have suffered and sometimes died because of misdiagnosis or mistreatment under the care of fully accredited doctors.
Subscribing to The Citizen, with its frequently dubious journalistic objectivity, is something I am reconsidering; however, my long time admiration for and patronage of Ave Maria will, if anything, increase in the face of these nasty attacks.
Norman Dale
Prince George
