Crown won’t appeal acquittal in Sask. farm shooting: father

REGINA The father of a young Indigenous man who was killed on a Saskatchewan farm says he is heartbroken the Crown will not appeal the acquittal of the man accused in the shooting.

Last month, a jury found Gerald Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Colten Boushie, who was 22 and from the Red Pheasant First Nation. The Crown said Wednesday there is no legal basis to appeal the verdict.

“There’s no justice there,” Pete Boushie told The Canadian Press from his home on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. “What else can I say?

“It just goes to show there is no justice in this world.”

Saskatchewan senior prosecutor Anthony Gerein said a verdict can’t be appealed because people don’t agree with it or because there may be questions about the investigation.

“The Crown can only appeal legal errors in the course of the trial,” he told a news conference.

“Public prosecutions lawyers, me, lawyers who do the appeal work here in Saskatchewan, experienced trial lawyers outside the appeal section ... found no basis to appeal.”

Chris Murphy, a Toronto lawyer representing the victim’s family, said he spoke with Colten Boushie’s mother Debbie Baptiste after the announcement and she responded that her fight is not over.

“The criminal proceedings against Gerald Stanley for the death of Colten Boushie are over but that’s not going to be the end of this family’s fight to ensure that the justice system in Canada and in Saskatchewan gets better,” Murphy said.