March on legislature underlines anger at not-guilty verdict in Boushie death
Richard Dubois stood shivering on the steps of the Saskatchewan legislature, his moustache crusted over with frost.
It was -25, and Dubois had helped lead about 80 protesters on a Monday afternoon march to the seat of provincial power.
A legislative worker invited them into the building, but only — he stressed — a few at a time.
“No flags,” the worker added. “Come and warm up.”
Dubois didn’t accept the invitation. He had carried his warrior flag as he departed from the CreeLand gas station, about an hour before.
He stayed on the steps. The protesters weren’t there to warm up, but to oppose what they see as an obvious injustice.
“Justice for Colten Boushie!” someone yelled.
It was the second march to hit Regina in the wake of Gerald Stanley ’s acquittal for the shooting death of Boushie. The marchers walked along Albert Street under police escort, only briefly blocking traffic on the bridge to hold a fiveminute round dance.
They were met with intermittent honks of support and — according to one marcher — at least a few middle fingers.
The case has been among the most polarizing in recent Saskatchewan history, with Stanley alternatively portrayed as a coldblooded killer or a hapless victim of rural crime whose gun “just wentoff.”
Dubois, an organizer long involved in Idle No More, said he feels as if the case will lend new energy to Indigenous activism. He feels like it will “light a fire” to get people off social media and onto the streets, where they can push for a “change of direction.”
“It’s just a recurring cycle of onesided justice,” he said. “We need to be addressing these issues at the top level, and that’s what we’re trying to do today.”
Lenny Still, among the elders at the protest, was tasked with burning sweetgrass for the march. He doubts that an Indigenous shooter would have been granted the ben- efit of reasonable doubt, especially if the dead man were white.
“Does that mean a white guy could come onto my reserve, come onto my property, and I could shoot him?” Still asked incredulously. “I could get away with it? Is that true?”
The march, though peaceful, was charged through with raw emotion. Social-work student Jamiy Moran remembered the moment she heard those words on her car radio: “not guilty.”
“I heard the verdict and ... instant tears. My heart fell to my stomach,” she said. “I was so emotional about it, not only for his family on an individual level, but just knowing that this happens over and over again. ”
She said Indigenous people need to step up and demand change.
“I just want changes on big levels, as well as on the small level,” she said. “Let’s just remember that we’re human beings. Everybody’s life matters… Indigenous lives matter.”
As the protesters spoke, Premier Scott Moe was getting ready to address reporters on the case. Moran, Dubois and many other protesters want him to hear their voices — and his government to pass reforms.
For Moran, that means making changes to the justice system, from top to bottom.
“What I think needs to change is the representation,” she said, “not only what we have in our juries, but also at the higher levels of the judicial system, in the positions of power: judges, Supreme Court judges.”
Until they see change, she suggested, the protesters won’t be ready to put down their flags.
I heard the verdict and ... instant tears. My heart fell to my stomach.