Windsor Comes Together To Demand Justice For Indigenous Youth

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has met the family of a young indigenous man who was killed by a white farmer in 2016.

Trudeau described his encounter with the family as a very good, very emotional meeting.

Carrying placards such as “Justice 4 Colten” and “We are Anishnaabe!”, the group heard from Logan and a number of other speakers before marching west along Chatham Street East and then back to the courthouse.

Boushie’s cousin, Jade Tootoosis, said the meetings were productive.

“Giving the people of colour the voices and the opportunities to voice their opinions and perspectives, that’s what important to me”, she 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.

Trudeau has also come under fire for remarks he made in the wake of Stanley’s acquittal, telling the Boushie family on Twitter he was “sending them love”. During jury selection, several Indigenous potential jurors were rejected in peremptory challenges from Mr. Stanley’s defence team, and as a result many, including Mr. Boushie’s family, are now advocating for an end to this practice. Only the members of the jury could say for certain. CBC News has not independently determined the reason for their exclusion.

A similar fundraising page for Boushie’s family, established five months ago, had raised $118,000.

In the year following Boushie’s death, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities passed a resolution calling for the federal government to expand the rights and justification for people to defend themselves, people under their care and their property.

They’ve served neither justice, nor the cause of Colten Boushie.

Mrs Wilson-Raybould said she will introduce reforms that address underrepresentation of indigenous people on juries, their overrepresentation in prison and trial delays.

One time, three non-Indigenous youth knocked on his door and shot him in the face with bottle rockets. The youth were eventually convicted. “We’re all in this together and we need to work very carefully together”.

“There is underrepresentation of equity-seeking people on juries”.

On Monday afternoon, for instance, there were loud grumbles in the House of Commons when the prime minister prefaced his response to a question about the case with the proviso that “it would be completely inappropriate to comment on the specifics of this case”.

For this trial, as is their right, the defence used its 14 peremptory challenges to guarantee an all-white jury.

“As a country we can and must do better,”.

The lack of a conviction in the killing of Colten Boushie can be a barrier or it can become a chance to change what is wrong in the justice system.

On Tuesday, Wilson-Raybould defended her tweet. The same could be said of the Indigenous experience in the justice system and Canadians. And so, on Saturday morning, Trudeau was asked whether he and the attorney general were questioning the judicial process.

The family has more meetings in Ottawa planned, including one with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh later on Tuesday.

“The thing that was the most shocking to me was the fact that they were so audible from where I was sitting (across the room) and there were police scattered throughout the room”.

Stanley was “a victim of a situation that was totally out of his control”, said Pashovitz.

Eric Meechance, who was in the auto that day, told the court he tried to start an ATV on Stanley’s property but denied trying to steal it.

What is up for debate was whether Stanley meant to do it or whether the gun went off accidentally.

Gerald Stanley, 56, was acquitted on Friday of murdering Colten Boushie, 22.