Wilson-Raybould said in a tweet that Canada “can and must do better”, after a jury found Gerald Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Colten Boushie.
Advertisement
Then the RCMP did not take care of critical evidence. They said they haven’t met with anyone from the Conservative party, but are open to it. The teenagers in the vehicle had reportedly started an altercation on the property and at the end of the day, 22-year-old Colten Boushie was dead from a gunshot wound.
At the same time, Olson said he has no intention of weighing in on what happened in Stanley’s farmyard on August 9, 2016, and that he has “never said that (Stanley) didn’t do anything wrong”. But some contributors echoed Stanley, who argued in court that he feared his farming equipment would be stolen. Stanley testified that he was scared for his wife and son’s safety.
There is another fundamental question which needs to be asked: What things that we own are so valuable that it is reasonable to load a firearm and head out knowing the weapon in our hands can kill in the heat of the moment, whether because of a trigger pulled in anger, or by a freak accident that launches a bullet into the head of a would-be thief?
Trudeau, who has pledged to fix the relationship between the government and Canada’s aboriginal people, said it is time to take a “rights-based approach” to decision-making in partnership with indigenous peoples.
Murphy said the family hopes the CRCC will be thorough.
And, as much as we might know about the shame of Canada’s residential schools and the fact that the numbers of missing and murdered indigenous women are staggering, we have done little about it.
The government said this week is scrutinizing how juries are chosen, including peremptory challenges, which allow lawyers to object to potential jurors and have them removed from the jury pool without giving a reason.
“Mr. Speaker, Indigenous Peoples and all Canadians are ready for change”.
Afterwards, Jade Tootoosis, a cousin of Boushie, said: “The most significant thing is that there was a general consensus that there are systemic issues regarding indigenous people and the judicial system and that each person has promised to work with us to make concrete changes within the system”.
“I look around and I see a lot of people here with conscience”, Clifton Ariwakehte Nicholas, told the crowd.
In the Stanley case, the accused was white and the victim indigenous. As an Indigenous man, he’s experienced a “large amount of racism”, he said.
“This case makes me feel frightful because my grandson, who is in Grade 11 at Maggie, is asking those questions, and his mom still doesn’t have those answers”, Wilson said.
“To me, the position that’s being put forward is completely inconsistent with the law”.
The jury’s verdict in the Stanley case, as it turns out, was revealed on Friday night.
A criminal defence lawyer, who did not want to be identified, said a murder trial lasting two to three weeks typically costs a defendant between $125,000 and $200,000, meaning the Gerald Stanley Support Fund may cover most or all of the farmer’s legal costs.
“It hasn’t even been 72 hours since the verdict”, Murphy said. I happened to be at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon (it’ll always be Sask Place to me…) attending a WWE wrestling event when my friend showed me her Facebook timeline, which said the decision would be revealed at approximately 7:30 pm.
“We are exhausted – we have heavy hearts”, she added.
Some spoke to how it’s an uncomfortable conversation, but one that’s necessary.
“I, as someone who practises on the defence side, am uncomfortable with the response to a case, an instance of injustice, where the peremptory challenges were used in an unjust way”. “We need that to translate into action, not just a handshake and a hug”.
Advertisement
This new system would ensure that the starting premise of all federal government action is the recognition of Indigenous rights, said one source with knowledge of the speech.
