RACIAL BIAS AT TRIALS?
Indigenous critics irate
The justice system is “stacked against us.” The media is “victim blaming.” Two high-profile murder trials playing out simultaneously in different provinces have prompted accusations of racial bias — both within Canada’s justice system, and the news outlets that cover the courts.
The deaths of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine were unique tragedies. He was the family hope, a dogged worker who dreamed of becoming a firefighter before he was shot on a farm in rural Saskatchewan. She was a lost girl, in free-fall after the violent death of her father, reported missing from care in downtown Winnipeg until her body was found in the Red River.
But as the cases against both Boushie’s and Fontaine’s killers unfold, critics express a shared anger: that the complexities of the Indigenous experience are not reflected in these trials, and that without a deeper understanding of the victims and their communities justice cannot be served.
At the start of the trial of Gerald Stanley, the Saskatchewan farmer charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man, Boushie’s family expressed frustration when defence lawyers exercised their right to use a peremptory challenge — the ability to dismiss a potential juror without explanation — on all individuals who appeared to be Indigenous.
“The deck is stacked against us,” Alvin Baptiste, Boushie’s uncle, told reporters at the time.
In an interview with the National Post this week, Chris Murphy, a lawyer for the Boushie family, cited a moment during the trial that illustrates why diversity in juries matters.
Eric Meechance, a friend of Boushie, was asked to identify a firearm in a crime scene photo. But the photo that was presented to him also showed Boushie’s dead body.
Meechance became emotional and he would not look at the photo. Doug Cuthand, a Cree columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, later wrote that it was “cultural taboo” to do so.
“If you don’t know Indigenous traditions and customs, you might think they’re being obstructionist or trying to evade looking at the picture,” Murphy said. “And so having an Indigenous person on the jury would help explain the traditions and cultures so the remainder of the jury can understand why they reacted that way.”