Now hailed as the 'Rodney King of Western Canada': jury selected for trial

Colton Boushie, 22, along with five friends took a warm afternoon to swim in the Saskatchewan River. On their way home – a fifty-minute ride to the Red Pheasant First Nations, a tire blew on their car. They pulled into a farmer’s driveway for help. What happened next ignited a firestorm of racial tensions that raged virally over social media.

The farmer, Gerard Stanley, shot Colton Boushie, killing him. Stanley was charged with second-degree murder. The RCMP’s handling of their press release on social media of the 2016 killing set the Saskatchewan province on edge. The RCMP initial release stated three occupants of the car had been taken into custody as part of a related theft investigation and another male was being sought. No charges were ever laid.

The news release provided just enough prejudicial information for certain readers to draw his or her own conclusions that the shooting was somehow justified. The RCMP later apologized for the news release but many in the province pointed to it as another example of how the justice system fails to treat Indigenous people equally.

As Boushie’s family grieved the loss of a caring young man who had been working towards becoming a firefighter, hate-filled comments flooded social media.

“His only mistake was leaving three witnesses,” wrote one rural councilor who later resigned. Another commenter said: “He should have shot all five and been given a medal.”

As well, when police arrived at Boushie’s home to notify his family of his death, they did so in an “extremely insensitive” fashion.

According to CBC, Chris Murphy, the lawyer for the Boushie family, stated, “They surrounded [his mother’s] trailer at the Red Pheasant Nation. And came into her trailer and searched the trailer, the same day that her son died.”

Boushie’s mother was so overcome with grief that she could barely stand, but family members said police asked them if they had been drinking.

In the months since the shooting, hundreds of protests have gathered outside the courthouse for every appearance by Gerard Stanley, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Their anger has been tempered by the Boushie family’s calling for peace and calm and asked supporters to respect the legal process.

According to the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, Kimberly Jonathan stated, “We’ve lost our kids to the Sixties Scoop, we lost our kids to residential schools, we are losing them in the justice system, we’re losing them in the jails and the penitentiaries,” she said.

“And when we face more loss, we get more anger and hatred towards First Nations and [people] saying ‘it’s your fault’,” she continued. “Well, we didn’t get there alone. And we’re not going to get out of the situation alone.”

A seven-woman, five-man jury was selected on Monday, January 29. Jurors for the trial of Stanley were chosen from a pool of about 250 people in Battleford, Sask. Originally 750 names were summoned for the jury, with hundreds providing reasons to be excused.