Boushie family sues farmer, RCMP
Claims Stanley acted with ‘excessive force’
SASKATOON • Sixty thousand dollars in grief counselling, $100,000 in lost employment earnings and $200,000 “in aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages to be proven at trial.”
These are just some of the damages — adding up to nearly $2 million — Colten Boushie’s family is seeking in two lawsuits filed on Wednesday, one against the RCMP and the other against Gerald Stanley.
Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous man, was fatally shot on Stanley’s farm in August 2016. The farmer was found not guilty of murder after testifying that his gun went off accidentally.
But in a statement of claim filed in a Saskatoon court on Wednesday, Boushie’s mother, Debbie Baptiste, claims Stanley acted with “excessive force.” Along with Colton’s brothers, Jace and Boyblue Boushie, she is also suing the attorney general of Canada and individual RCMP officers over the way they were treated on the day Boushie died.
The Boushies’ lawyers said the lawsuits are intended to “hold the person responsible for Colton’s wrongful death accountable” and “force the RCMP to look deeply within itself” to examine how it “interacts with the Indigenous citizens of Canada.”
Baptiste claims her son’s death is “a direct result of the negligent, reckless or intentional acts of the defendant, Gerald Stanley.” Her suit alleges he failed to assess potential risk, shot Boushie at “point blank range” and did not administer or call for any medical assistance for the young man.
For her own suffering following the death of her son — which she claims includes grief, the loss of his “care and companionship” and past and future income — Baptiste is claiming a total of more than $400,000 in damages.
In her statement of claim against the RCMP, Baptiste seeks another $550,000 in damages: $200,000 for general damages, $200,000 for punitive damages, $100,000 for pecuniary and other losses, and $50,000 for special damages. As part of the same lawsuit, her sons are each seeking $450,000 in damages: $100,000 for general damages, $200,000 for punitive damages, $100,000 for pecuniary and other losses, and $50,000 for special damages.
Baptiste claims she fell to the ground when RCMP officers told her Boushie was dead; officers told her to “get herself together,” then asked if she had been drinking and smelled her breath.
“The search officers who attended the home deliberately engaged in discrimination by subjecting three proud members of the Red Pheasant First Nation to ridicule, unlawful searches and humiliating breath tests,” the lawsuit reads.
“While the loss of Colten has devastated the plaintiffs, it has been the unending memory of the defendants’ high-handed and egregious conduct that has caused the plaintiffs’ injuries.”
The lawsuit states that because of that interaction with RCMP, Baptiste and her sons have suffered depression, anxiety, nervous shock, interference with normal sleeping patterns, loss of enjoyment of life and suicidal ideation.
In an emailed statement, lawyer Chris Murphy said there “can be no true reconciliation until the RCMP, itself, acknowledges that the callous manner” in which officers treated the Boushie family “was due — at least in part — to the fact that they were proud members of the Red Pheasant First Nation.”
The defendants have 30 days to provide a statement of defence. None of the allegations in the lawsuits have been proven in court.
The Boushie case, which has garnered massive attention across the country, unfolded on the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2016, when five friends — Boushie, Cassidy Cross-Whitstone, Belinda Jackson, Eric Meechance and Kiora Wuttunee — got into a grey Ford Escape SUV and drove from Red Pheasant First Nation to a swimming spot by the river. All had been drinking.
After leaving the river, they got a flat tire. They drove onto a farm 15 kilometres northeast of Stanley’s property, and at least one person attempted to steal a truck by hitting the window with a .22-calibre rifle that was in the back of the SUV.
The SUV was eventually driven onto Stanley’s farm, where one of the its occupants attempted to start a quad on Stanley’s property and collided with a parked vehicle, court heard. During the incident, Boushie — sitting in the driver’s seat — was killed by a single gunshot to the head.