Robert Latimer, seen while on leave in March 2008, has been granted another 10-day leave by the National Parole Board. (Geoff Howe/CP)

Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who is serving a life sentence for killing his disabled daughter, has been given permission to take ten days away from his current residence, a half-way house in Ottawa.

Latimer has been on day parole since March of 2008. Since then he has regularly applied for — and been granted — permission to leave the residence for several days at a time.

In releasing its decision on Latimer's latest request, which the National Parole Board describes as an "extended leave," the board noted that Latimer has been behaving well while on day parole.

"You are employed full time and are planning to upgrade your employment skills," the two-person panel of the board wrote in a decision dated July 23 and released Friday. "You are described by the psychologist, whom you see regularly, as continuing to make a satisfactory adjustment to the community. Your risk to re-offend continues to be assessed as low."

As is their normal practice, the release of the board's decision was edited so as not to reveal Latimer's plans for what he wanted to do during the ten-day leave. However, It did note that the absence would take place in August.

Latimer, 56, began serving his sentence in 2001. He was sent to prison after his case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and became the focus of intense debate over issues relating to the rights of the disabled and euthanasia.

Latimer — who has always maintained that he acted out of compassion when he killed his daughter Tracy, 12, in 1993 — will be eligible for full parole in January 2011.