{"id":152181,"date":"2018-02-11T03:52:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T08:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=152181"},"modified":"2018-02-11T03:53:09","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T08:53:09","slug":"colten-boushies-mother-delivers-emotional-message-as-rallies-held-across-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/11\/colten-boushies-mother-delivers-emotional-message-as-rallies-held-across-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Colten Boushie’s mother delivers emotional message as rallies held across Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The emotions were raw at demonstrations across Canada on Saturday to protest the acquittal of a white Saskatchewan farmer in the shooting death of a young Indigenous man. (Photo<\/a> by Joe Gratz\/Flickr<\/a>, Public Domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. \u2014 The emotions were raw at demonstrations across Canada on Saturday to protest the acquittal of a white Saskatchewan farmer in the shooting death of a young Indigenous man.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere was particularly charged at a rally in North Battleford, where the victim’s mother delivered an angry, defiant address near the courthouse where the verdict was delivered the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite people \u2014 they run the court system. Enough. We’re going to fight back,\u201d Debbie Baptiste told a crowd of roughly 100 people, some of whom carried signs reading Indigenous Lives Matter. \u201cThey’re not sweeping us under the carpet. Enough killing our people. We fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defence for Gerald Stanley had argued that his gun accidentally went off, killing 22-year-old Colten Boushie with a single shot to the back of the head in a \u201cfreak accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat ain’t no freak accident,\u201d said Baptiste. \u201cGo to hell, Gerald Stanley. That’s where you belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvin Baptiste, Boushie’s uncle, said it has been a difficult time for the family, but he called the rallies a good start toward changing the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to take this all the way to Ottawa,\u201d he said. \u201cIndigenous people have never received justice throughout Canada. This is white-privileged justice that has happened to my family. A whitewash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baptiste said he had a meeting scheduled with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in Saskatoon on Saturday, but he also wants to sit down with Prime Minister Justin\u00a0Trudeau.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister has spoken so many words, but has never heard our words,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trudeau\u00a0addressed the case Saturday at a news conference in Los Angeles, where he was wrapping up a trip to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to comment on the process that led us to this point today, but I am going to say we have come to this point as a country far too many times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous people across this country are angry, they’re heartbroken, and I know Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike know that we have to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters of the Boushie family held rallies in cities across the country Saturday to show solidarity. In Edmonton, where several hundred people gathered at the city’s police headquarters, Dale Janvier called for people to make Boushie a martyr.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we need a martyr, then this would be a martyr right here. Hopefully it’s a martyr of peace, not revenge, and Colten’s death could be for something,\u201d Janvier told reporters after addressing the crowd.<\/p>\n

Hundreds also attended a rally in Toronto, where Shandra Spears Bombay of the Rainy River First Nation said it always is surprising to see how the government and justice system can continue to disappoint Canada’s Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always a shock to see how far that Canada’s racism can go,\u201d said Bombay. \u201cI know it’s there, I know it’s pervasive, but sometimes when they don’t have a hope in heck of being innocent, they’re still found innocent of shooting someone in the head.\u201d<\/p>\n

At an Ottawa rally, the sound of people chanting a Cree honour song mixed with the noon bells of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

Eight-year-old Mariposa Horsley stood beside her mother and brother and held a sign that read Everybody Matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a best friend who is Inuit. Her mother is actually a throat singer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be nice to come because I don’t think we should be against people just because of the colour of their skin. It’s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurt Littlewood, who was at the Edmonton rally, noted the tragedy of the shooting goes back further than the incident on Stanley’s farm, and that he feels some sympathy for the man.<\/p>\n

Littlewood said Stanley’s actions were born out of the thefts and other incidents his neighbours in the region had experienced, as well as the animosity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cActions taken against Colten were just a moment of blind rage against a situation,\u201d said Littlewood. \u201cStill, I would like Stanley and others to accept the responsibility, take hold of what they did, and that they can bring peace to both communities,\u201d Littlewood said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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