Robert Latimer's continued refusal to show contrition or feel guilt for killing his 12-year-old daughter in 1993 is upsetting to one advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

Latimer, currently serving a life sentence for killing his severely disabled daughter, was denied day parole on Wednesday.

The chair of the National Parole Board panel at B.C.'s minimum-security William Head prison, located near Victoria, told Latimer "we were left with a feeling that you have not developed the kind of sufficient insight and understanding of your actions."

Grant Mitchell, the lawyer who represented a coalition of disabled groups for seven years on the case, told CTV's Canada AM he is disappointed Latimer hasn't changed his position.

"I think it's really sad that he's still maintaining that he committed no crime ... that killing a member of his family was a private matter that the public had no business getting involved in," Mitchell said on Thursday.

"And I think it's particularly concerning that when he was asked by the Parole Board whether he would do the same thing if another member of his family were in distress, he said he wasn't sure what he would do."

Latimer chose not to appear before the Parole Board with a lawyer.

The Saskatchewan farmer's daughter, Tracy, was born with cerebral palsy and in 1993 was facing another operation to fix a permanently dislocated hip.

While his wife and kids were at church, Latimer put Tracy in the cab of his pickup and pumped exhaust fumes into the vehicle.

Tracy, who could neither walk nor talk, had the mental age of a three-month-old child.

In 1994, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, but the decision was wiped out later by the Supreme Court. In 1997, a second guilty verdict was upheld despite an appeal.

On Wednesday, when the Parole Board members pressed Latimer on whether he would take the same action if a family member was terminally ill, he answered: "I don't think so."

Arthur Schafer, director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, said he wasn't surprised by the verdict.

"From my perspective, the justice system has been rigid, inflexible and lacking in both justice and humanity right from the outset of this case. So to see the injustice perpetuated isn't so surprising," he told Canada AM.

He suggested that the Board denied day-parole to Latimer because he refused to "grovel" during his appearance.

Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, was outraged by the decision and said Latimer could not have shown remorse for his actions, because he had acted on compassionate grounds.

"Who could expect him to go through all this, the ritual of contrition, in order to satisfy (the Parole Board) that he has changed his mind about something that was so important to him in the first place," Borovoy told CTV Newsnet.

"This is tantamount to saying, 'Robert Latimer, tell us that you would much prefer that your daughter be suffering unremitting pain now than the result that has already occurred.'"

Latimer, who began serving his sentence in January 2001, will be eligible to re-apply for day parole in two years.

In a 2006 interview with The Canadian Press, Latimer said he had no regrets about what he did to his daughter.

"The law is a very stupid thing when it comes to trying to sort these things out," he said. "They don't have any realistic appreciation of what is going on."

In prison, Latimer has taken electrician and carpenter courses and even managed to run his farm with the help of a manager.