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Justice for Indigenous Canadians

The outrage that came following the acquittal of Gerald Stanley, a white farmer in Saskatchewan who shot and killed Colten Boushie, a young indigenous man, highlights a stark reality about the Canadian justice system.

In the same fashion as European settlers forced a new culture on Indigenous peoples in Canada, they also imposed their brand of justice. Centuries later, more than one-quarter of prison inmates are indigenous, while only accounting for about five per cent of the country's total population.

The over-representation in jail does little to assuage feelings by Indigenous victims of crime that the system isn't their system.

Throw in a white man, accused of murdering a young Cree man, and in fact, admits to shooting him albeit accidentally, who is nonetheless allowed to walk after being tried by an apparent all-white jury – it's a recipe not only for anger and unrest but even greater alienation and distrust of the law.

The fallout spilled onto the streets of downtown Yellowknife on Saturday, Feb. 10 at a spontaneous rally of about 50 people. Cries of "justice for Colten" were joined by a chorus of calls for answers, reconciliation and change. Similar outpourings were seen in communities across Canada.

Noeline Villebrun, a former chief of the Dene Nation who attended Saturday's rally along with lawyer Jonathan Park, calls for justice following the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the shooting death of Colten Boushie in Saskatchewan.
NNSL file photo

On Monday, Feb. 12 a second demonstration at the legislative assembly saw some 100 people gather outside.

Jonathan Park, a Yellowknife defence lawyer, said he was left "furious" by the Stanley verdict.

"The system is designed in a very specific way. It's built on principles and foundations of white supremacy and … anyone who doesn't fit into that mold is not taken seriously as a person," said Park.

This is a key point. What other segment of society would suffer the indignity of having police officers show up at their door with guns drawn to inform them their next of kin is dead? Or, as reported by APTN, endure Facebook posts, purportedly from police officers, fuming at being called racists while claiming Boushie “got what he deserved”?

This is not the way Canadians in Canada expect to be treated.

Yellowknifer has seen enough tragic cases right here in the Northwest Territories to know the Boushie saga is not an odd relic from an historical racist past marooned in an enlightened present.

Too man times, whether it be an Indigenous man with a head wound put in a jail cell or an elder thought drunk when suffering from a stroke, the plight of Indigenous citizens have not been taken seriously by people in authority or who had the power to help.

It's difficult to comment on the justness of the verdict itself. We weren't there every day during the trial nor during jury selection where it is being claimed Stanley's lawyer used his right to peremptory challenges to shed the jury of indigenous members.

Maybe it was an accident as Stanley claimed. Add up all the indignities though, from the day Boushie got shot to Stanley's eventual acquittal, it's clear the justice system does not serve Indigenous people as well as it should.

Any society needs law. These laws must grow from the sense of order and what's seen as the right thing to do.

But just as society needs law, the law needs to be fair. We must also understand everything that is at stake.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wasted no time commenting on the verdict, talks a good game but talk is cheap.

If peremptory challenges during jury selection is a problem it must be explained to Canadians why that is. The reality here in the Northwest Territories is that many, if not most people before the courts, have an Indigenous background, as do the victims.

If politicians are going to make changes to the legal system, they must be careful not make things worse.