Explain what do better means

Dear editor: I was shocked about the reporting of the verdict in the Bouchie case, not as much about the verdict, but rather the justice minister and prime minister saying, “we need to do better.”

This was not an op-ed, but a declaration, that the current justice system we have, with all the evidence being heard, made a decision, a verdict, and two peripheral, political observers, who were not even in the courtroom have made disparaging remarks, challenging the validity of the jury system.

I have to wonder what the words “do better” actually mean.

Was this an indictment of the jury system, or the 12 people who served on the jury, or the inability to make the current Nation to Nation Indian Act do more for all those Indigenous youth, who are the victims of a flawed system that has been recognized as being broken since I was a child?

In all this time, no substantiative changes have been made only long, politically-correct faces, in front of the cameras pledging to “do more” each time one more of these victims have been discovered.

These kids don’t need anything more than hope of a future, a decent education, proper medical care, being raised without substance and physical abuse, and the opportunity to live the Canadian dream.

They deserve real opportunity for jobs, careers, a decent home, and secure neighbourhoods for themselves and their families.

We can, and must do more. The starting point is with the origins of all these victims and I, and most others also agree, that we can and must do more. Don’t just talk. Chuck Liebrock

Kelowna