‘Time did not heal,’ says Colten Boushie’s mother

Debbie Baptiste says she was hopeful when she went into the trial of the man accused of killing her son.

She hoped she would find justice for her son Colten Boushie, who was shot and killed on a farm near Biggar in August 2016. He was 22.

But after two weeks in court and 13 hours of jury deliberation, she left angry.

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the controversial, high-profile verdict in the Stanley trial. A pipe ceremony and candlelight vigil are planned in North Battleford, Sask., and Boushie’s family members are expected to share their thoughts about the past year.

Farmer Gerald Stanley, who admitted he fired the gun on the day the Cree man died, was found not guilty of second-degree murder. He walked away a free man.

“I just have to keep living a nightmare over and over again,” Baptiste said in an interview this week.

“It doesn’t get better. Time did not heal.”

Stanley took the stand at his trial and testified that his gun had gone off accidentally. He said he was firing to scare off some young people he thought were stealing from him after they drove onto his property.

Boushie was sitting in the driver’s seat of a Ford Escape when he was shot in the back of the head.

Public reaction to the acquittal was immediate and intense.

Within two months of the verdict, the federal government brought forward legislation that proposes to abolish peremptory challenges, which allow lawyers to reject potential jurors without having to provide a reason.

Such challenges were criticized during the Stanley trial for allowing the defence to exclude visibly Indigenous people during jury selection.