Where are the "allys"? Justice for Colton!

Gerald Stanley, a white man, was found not guilty of murdering Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man, by a white jury.

"I don't know what society is but I guess you can shoot people in the back of the head and get away with it. This ain't right, this ain't justice. The law system failed my family," said Jace Baptiste, Mr. Boushie's older brother as he left court.

This trial was not about what Colton, his girlfriend and friends were doing on that farm. It was not about if they were drinking or not, or being blamed for attempted theft, or if they had a rifle or not.  This trial was about the victim, the murder of Colton Boushie. It was about his death, and the man that was accused for shooting him point blank in the head, as witnessed by his girlfriend. 

But from the defense attorney dismissing all Indigenous jurors, to the judge presiding being a prior defense lawyer to protect a RCMP officer who wore proudly a arm band for Hitler's Reich, to the disgusting and unjust way the RCMP treated the family immediately after his death….how could this trial for this murder be just? How could it be fair? Whatever evidence was presented, it wasn’t considered.

For argument sake, take away race….Indigenous and white as the non-indigenous want to us to do (white fragility), and let’s agree that it is within rights to protect your property. That may mean getting dogs, putting up fences, calling the cops…but it’s not a right ever to shoot someone in the head…that is murder…plain and simple. Gerald Stanley was not in danger, his life was not being threatened.

Our justice system, by permitting a white jury to decide an obviously racially charged case, has let down not just Indigenous people, but all Canadians, in this era of “reconciliation”. Because Gerald Stanley and the jurors were white, because Colten Boushie was Indigenous, and because the trial was in a community plagued by a well-documented racist/colonialist past, we can all easily doubt the integrity of the verdict.

Even if Colten Boushie had been trespassing.. did that warrant a death sentence? Does that make it ok for the man who shot him to walk free, without any repercussions for taking a young life?

Now let’s put race back in…look at the racial divide in Sask and Canada…its does exist, much as Canada preaches reconciliation. Could he have shot Colton in the head because he was native? Because he was drinking? Because he felt his white privilege would allow it and he could not be reprimanded? I say yes…quite possibly….and ….it worked. I say shame, and even if his conscience allows him to exist and sleep at night, and he can make excuses and get support from people like the group “Farmers with Firearms”, and tell him himself he was just….even if all that…..there is a higher power that will judge him, whether he chooses to believe that or not.

Colton soars with Creator, and he is free with the ancestors…but his time was not now…that time was taken from him. His mother and family left to mourn and bear the unjust verdict. His family will appeal the verdict.

Will his death be in vain and forgotten in a month, or will Canada and the original people of this land, not allow that?

Indigenous People are angry. They are angry that a young man lost his life before his time and that there was no justice for him, and his killer walks free. We are scared that this has now set a legal precedent and that it's ok, that it gives permission for racism, for outright racist comments and even murder, and nothing will be done about it.

Indigenous Peoples are rallying in solidarity in Canada for justice for Colton. This is the time for the non-Indigenous “Allies” to truly stand up and back their words with action. One such man did so on Facebook who is from the same area, has done the same things as Colton and his friends did. They drank, drove cars, fired guns out of boredom. They were called “boys just letting off steam”. This man shared his place of privilege and his story so that others can bear witness to the racism that exists. Will other’s do the same? 

If all lives matter, then let Canada prove it. Stop killing people that are not white. Then, and only then will all lives matter. 

#justiceforcolton #indigenouslivesmatter #allwhitejuryacquital #prayersfortheboushiefamily