Stanley verdict puts system on trial

Opinion

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This article was published 12/02/2018 (2410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The jury in the Gerald Stanley trial gave its verdict Friday. On the weekend, hundreds of protesters in cities across Canada responded with their own verdict, shouting that Canada’s justice system is guilty of systemic racism.

Fear and anger exploded in Battleford, Sask., and many other cities following the acquittal of Biggar-area farmer Gerald Stanley on a charge of second-degree murder for the killing of Colten Boushie, a member of the adjacent Red Pheasant Cree community. The 2016 incident grew into a national scandal because it crystallized ill feelings between Canada’s Indigenous people and settler people. Those ill feelings go back many generations and will take a long time to heal.

Colten Boushie and his friends, who had been drinking, drove their damaged car onto the Stanley farm looking for help to fix a flat tire. In the neighbourly tradition of the sparsely populated prairies, it is perfectly normal to ask a neighbour for help. Mr. Stanley, however, suspected they were up to no good and ordered them off his farm. In the ensuing confrontation, the gun he was holding discharged, killing Mr. Boushie.

The jury at his murder trial found Mr. Stanley not guilty, to the dismay of Mr. Boushie’s family, who thought he was obviously guilty of something. They wondered why the jury included no person of Indigenous appearance. It looked for all the world as though the white people’s justice system had assembled a jury of white people to protect the white accused and deny justice to the Cree victim and his family.

But Canada is now struggling with something deeper than a faulty justice system. It is dealing with deep-seated mistrust between the descendants of European settlers and Indigenous people. Most of the time, that mistrust simmers quietly. In the Boushie case, it has exploded into the open.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission under Justice Murray Sinclair proposed steps toward a brighter future arising from the bitter experience of Indigenous people who were compelled to attend residential schools, where they were cut off from their families and ancestral languages, and many were abused. Some of his proposals were acted upon, others await action.

The national reaction to Friday’s Saskatchewan verdict has the feel of a flashpoint, as if the outrage at such a blatant example of injustice won’t fade away.

Although it’s unusual for politicians to offer opinions on jury verdicts, both federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott offered public statements asserting the need for improvements in the justice system.

And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed sympathy for Mr. Boushie’s family, saying, “I know Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike know that we have to do better.”

He has that right. And, as the prime minister of a majority government, he also has the power to make changes. Reforms to criminal procedure might help restore public confidence in the criminal courts.

Why are Canada’s prisons overpopulated with Indigenous offenders? The Boushie case, like others before it, suggests one dismaying factor: Canada’s courts seem to acquit white accused and convict Indigenous people. Better assurance that juries have a more balanced makeup would probably help.

The words of compassion from the prime minister are appreciated by those who feel aggrieved. But many Canadians hope the federal government’s expressed concerns about the justice system will go beyond words.