Boushie’s homicide, and the RCMP’s aggressive treatment of his family and First Nation following the killing, has inflamed tensions across Canada. The trial heard that Boushie, 22, was shot while sitting in an SUV that had been driven onto Stanley’s farm.
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A jury found Stanley, 56, not guilty Friday in the August 2016 shooting death of Colten Boushie.
That said, legitimate concerns have been raised that the jury which let Stanley go free had no visibly Indigenous members and could possibly have been biased in his favour.
“Through so many eyes, this entire event has been seen as a “what if that was me” which is why I think it has received the huge amount of donations it has”, Olson wrote. “I suspected he would probably be acquitted”.
But Ouellette, unlike many Indigenous leaders, expressed sympathy for whom he believes is another victim in the tragedy: the Stanley family.
Pratt said he met with the province’s deputy premier on Monday, while the provincial premier also met with the Boushie family.
Murphy also took issue with the fact that Stanley, despite living in an area with a large indigenous population, was tried by an all-white jury. “I pose this question to all those critics and all those people who think that Gerald Stanley was justified in what he did: What would you do if that was your child?”
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, criticised the RCMP release as providing “just enough prejudicial information for the average reader to draw their own conclusions that the shooting was somehow justified”. “It’s essentially become. a lawless state in some ways”, Ouellette added.
“Across Canada we have a lot of people demonstrating to show their support”, said Mueller. We can not count on others to do this work for us.
“Already Indigenous youth live with little hope for their future, and today they have again been told that their lives have less value”.
He will not say what was discussed with the Boushie family saying they can divulge that information if they wish, but the get-together was very informative.
The hostile social media atmosphere was another common theme with speakers, who anxious the online battles would lead to real life violence.
Charles, the Lac La Ronge Indian Band councillor for Stanley Mission, had followed Stanley’s trial in the news over the past two weeks. “But the role of a leader is also to look at things with a cool head and try and take a perspective from different vantage points”.
“If we can not find some way toward real change for Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, Colten Boushie will also be the victim of a criminal justice system that was stacked against him from the start and a government indifferent to that reality”. “Including the composition of juries”.
“Colten’s story is unique, but the outcome is similar to many stories of young Indigenous lives all across Canada”, said Coltman, during her speech. “It is discriminatory to Indigenous peoples”.
While many people eloquently expressed their anger, hurt and frustration on social media over the weekend, one of the most poignant statements came from Senator Murray Sinclair, a retired judge who chaired Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A subsequent march to the Law Courts Building on Broadway saw the crowd swell to almost 1,000. “He honoured that, he always looked out for his family, including his mother”, he explained. “I certainly think it will open discussion”.
Both the prime minister and the justice minister have been under fire from some in the legal community and by some in the opposition about tweets they made after the Boushie verdict was delivered. “I truly feel your pain and I hear all of your voices”. “We need to be very vigilant in terms of fairness, equality and ensuring access to justice for all”.
“I went to high school with not a lot of indigenous students and I told them once I was aboriginal and they would ask me, ‘Why would I admit to that?” This is what’s happened.
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“We’re more than our daily (or centuries of) battles”.
