Stoking divisions hurts reconciliation efforts
What happened on Stanley farm was a tragedy for everyone, John Robson says.
Many prominent Canadians appear to be in a vindictive mood over the tragic shooting of Colten Boushie. It seems terribly divisive and lacking in compassion.
A few, including the prime minister, paid lip service to fair trials. But their passionate remarks make publicly clear that they wish farmer Gerald Stanley, acquitted by a jury, had instead been convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
If Stanley truly believes what happened was an accident, there must be at least some compassion for a man who will live the rest of his days with the knowledge that he took a human life under frightening and fast-moving circumstances. Also, possibly, living in the fear of facing vigilante justice, with so many whipping up hatred and hysteria by claiming this white guy basically got away with racist murder and we all know where he farms.
Rampant crime and ineffective policing are a huge issue in the rural parts of Western Canada. And it cannot seriously be argued that citizens everywhere would only object to repeated thefts and burglaries if the perpetrators were exclusively white. Disagreement over the verdict is one thing, but to suggest that Saskatchewan in 2018 is Mississippi burning is a reckless calumny.
Where, for that matter, is the compassion for Aboriginals who are also stuck living in communities riddled with crime? Including Colten Boushie himself, victim as well as perpetrator of a reckless spree that was almost certain to end in some sort of disaster. To deny that such destructive conduct is too common on many reserves is callous, not considerate.
It is difficult to see a path toward reconciliation with so many, including the prime minister, reinforcing the impression among some Aboriginals that the courts are a bigoted scam while suggesting to their non-Aboriginal neighbours that their fear of armed robbery makes them little better than Klansmen. That includes Trudeau’s sanctimonious “we have come to this point as a country far too many times.”
If he is claiming white Canadians routinely kill Aboriginals and get away with it, he is spouting inflammatory nonsense. In 2015, for instance, a quarter of all reported homicide victims were Aboriginal (148/604), almost three quarters (107) male. But in over 80 per cent of solved cases, victim and killer knew one another. When those who murder Aboriginals or anyone else here are caught, they are prosecuted vigorously.
Lots of people evidently believe Stanley walked up to Boushie, put a gun to his head, executed him and then lied to a complicit white jury. But unless those people happen to be exactly right about all of that, then what happened can be tragic without being a miscarriage of justice. There is no factual basis for suggesting whites routinely kill Aboriginals and get acquitted by bigoted neighbours or that, as NDP MP Charlie Angus scandalously suggested in question period, “the senseless killing of Indigenous youth is considered OK.” No one thinks anything that happened that day on the Stanley farm was OK.
Trudeau’s further “Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike know that we have to do better” is also smug PC gibberish or worse. Does he mean Stanley should have been convicted, despite the evidence, because of his race? That Boushie and his friends should have been allowed to break laws because of theirs? Should race trump behaviour?
As so often, the supposedly compassionate progressive view ends up being dehumanizing all around. It reduces Stanley and his neighbours to cardboard cut-out violent bigots. Trudeau’s heart went out over Colten Boushie’s death to “his mom Debbie” but I wonder if he knows the name of Gerald Stanley’s wife (it’s Leesa) who will also live the rest of her life in the shadow of this tragedy that cost a young man’s life no one can ever give back.
I wonder what those like NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who tweeted “There was no justice for Colten Boushie,” were hoping would happen in that courtroom; even a life sentence for Stanley would not bring Boushie back to life. But this progressive attitude also reduces Aboriginals to cardboard cut-out innocent victims without moral agency.
Singh further tweeted: “We must confront the legacy of colonialism and genocide so (Indigenous youth) can see a brighter future for themselves.” But it would be a classic instance of George W. Bush’s “soft bigotry of low expectations” to pretend there wasn’t a series of bad decisions made that day that provoked the deadly confrontation. It is condescending, and harmful, to suggest that in the hands of colonialism or some other irresistible historical force Aboriginals are but sad puppets.
I’m sure everyone involved would make different choices that day if they could do it over again. But they can’t. Unlike people now recklessly heaping fuel onto the fires of divisive resentment.