Timeline look at how fatal shooting of Colton Boushie was handled
SASKATOON People across Canada will be watching as the seconddegree murder trial for Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley begins in Battleford next week. In advance, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix lays out some of the events leading up to the jury trial.
AUG. 9, 2016
After a day of drinking and swimming, 22-year-old Colten Boushie and four of his friends are driving home to Red Pheasant First Nation when they stop at Gerald Stanley’s farm in the Rural Municipality of Glenside. Boushie is fatally shot.
AUG. 11, 2016
Stanley, 54, is charged with second-degree murder. Someone starts a GoFundMe webpage to help pay for his legal fees. In a news release, RCMP identify Boushie and say people who had been in the car with him were taken into police custody as part of a related theft investigation.
Boushie’s family tells The Saskatoon StarPhoenix that Boushie and his friends had driven onto Stanley’s farm because they needed help with a flat tire.
Many people discussing the story online suggest Stanley’s actions were justified because Indigenous people are responsible for rising crime in rural Saskatchewan, which is leaving farmers scared and with no alternative but violence.
AUG. 12, 2016
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations blasts the RCMP for its “biased” news release.
FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron says the law-enforcement agency “provided just enough prejudicial information for the average reader to draw their own conclusions that the shooting was somehow justified.”
AUG. 14, 2016
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall condemns the “racist and hate-filled comments” that have become prolific on social media and online forums since Boushie’s death.
“None of us should be jumping to any conclusions about what happened. We should trust the RCMP to do their work,” Wall wrote on Facebook. “I call on Saskatchewan people to rise above intolerance, to be our best and to be the kind of neighbours and fellow citizens we are reputed to be.”
As hateful comments proliferate online, one pastor who works near the scene of the shooting tells the StarPhoenix he thinks Boushie “is the Rodney King of Western Canada.”
AUG. 18, 2016
Hundreds of people chanting and holding signs reading “Justice for Colten” rally outside Battleford Court of Queen’s Bench when Stanley appears for his bail hearing.
AUG. 19, 2016
Stanley is released on $10,000 cash bail, ordered to remain within a six-kilometre radius of his home on electronic monitoring and have no contact with Boushie’s family. FSIN vice-chief Kim Jonathan expresses disappointment with the decision to release him and says it may further fuel racial tensions in the province.
AUG. 24, 2016
Ben Kautz, a councillor for the Rural Municipality of Browning, resigns over an inappropriate social media comment he made about Boushie’s shooting. Kautz had written on a Facebook page that “(Stanley’s) only mistake was leaving witnesses.”
DECEMBER 2016
Boushie’s family files a public complaint with the RCMP expressing concern about the manner in which officers interacted with Boushie’s mother, Debbie Baptiste, on the day Boushie died. The family said officers surrounded Baptiste’s trailer on the Red Pheasant First Nation, told Baptiste to “get it together” when she broke down after hearing her son had died, asked her if she had been drinking and then performed an illegal search of the trailer.
MARCH 14, 2017
Delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention vote 93 per cent in favour of a resolution calling on its leaders to lobby the federal government for more relaxed self-defence laws. FSIN vice-chief Kim Jonathan says she is “disgusted” by the resolution and worried it could lead to more violent confrontations.
Lionel Story, deputy reeve of the Rural Municipality of Kindersley, which submitted the resolution, says it was not a response to Boushie’s death, but rather an effort to make wouldbe criminals “think twice” before trespassing on people’s property.
APRIL 4, 2017
Boushie’s family and friends flock to North Battleford provincial court for the first day of Stanley’s preliminary hearing, which is held so a judge can decide if there is enough evidence to order a trial. So many people show up that proceedings are live-streamed to an overflow courtroom and court security is ramped up to levels rarely seen.
APRIL 5, 2017
As the preliminary hearing continues, Stanley’s lawyer,
Scott Spencer, tells media there have been “many threats” made against his client and “it has been a constant concern for the Stanley family.”
APRIL 6, 2017
A North Battleford provincial court judge decides there is enough evidence for Stanley to stand trial. Boushie’s family and supporters say they are pleased with the decision and ask the people gathered to respect the legal process.
“Colten’s death must have a purpose,” Colten’s cousin, Jade Tootoosis tells a crowd of more than 100 people. “While his death reveals a deep divide that exists between many within this province, it has also brought us here to this courthouse where we can come together and ask for a fair trial for everyone involved. We, Colten’s family, hope that this preliminary hearing and the issues that it raises about our relationships with each other will generate further discussion and dialogue to help us bring our communities together.”
MAY 2017
The Assembly of First Nations votes to support a petition by Boushie’s family that calls for a new Crown prosecutor and an out-of-province lead investigator for the case. Boushie’s family members say they feel the investigator has mishandled the case.
AUG. 9, 2017
On the one-year anniversary of Boushie’s death, more than 100 people gather at the Chief Glen Keskotagan Community Centre on Red Pheasant First Nation for a memorial feast to honour the young man. Many who attend are friends, family members and residents of Red Pheasant First Nation, but others have never met Boushie and say they simply came to support his family members, who they have heard speaking out against racism.
NOVEMBER 2017
The RCMP clear themselves of any wrongdoing in their interactions with Debbie Baptiste. In a letter sent to Boushie’s family, RCMP Supt. Mike Gibbs says a “thorough investigation” was done into the Boushie family’s complaint and there was no evidence to support the claims that officers were behaving inappropriately.
In his letter, Gibbs says no RCMP officers recalled hearing anyone ask Baptiste if she had been drinking or telling her to “get it together.” Gibbs writes that RCMP interaction with the Boushie family was “unique” because officers were still looking for a man who may have witnessed the shooting. He said a large number of officers were sent to the home for “safety and tactical reasons.”
JANUARY TO FEBRUARY 2018
Jury selection for Stanley’s trial is scheduled to take place in Battleford on Jan. 29. Stanley’s trial is to begin the next day at Battleford Court of Queen’s Bench and continue until Feb. 15.