Voters speaker; context vital in Boushie shooting

It was a tale of two cities for Saskatoon and Regina’s mayoralty races.

As expected, Regina incumbent Michael Fougere won a resounding victory. Voter apathy — a 20 per cent turnout — general satisfaction with the status quo and a weak slate of alternatives combined to give Fougere more than 70 per cent of the vote.

Saskatoon, on the other hand, after an intense campaign, saw 10-year city councillor Charlie Clark defeat four-term mayor Don Atchison.

Trailing in public opinion polls just days earlier, Clark’s campaign made an impressive kick for the wire with a targeted ad blitz, robocalls and an effective get-out-the-vote ground game.

Of most interest now will be Clark’s political world view as the most left wing mayor in Saskatoon memory. With Clark’s family ties deep into NDP politics, he even had the same social justice activist running his campaign who managed the successful federal NDP Saskatoon West race last year.

But many mainstream and labour-oriented New Democrats had backed third place finisher Kelley Moore, which leaves some interesting questions inside the NDP.

For the change message of Charlie Clark the question will be, “Change from what to what?”

And, beyond Saskatoon, politics watchers around the legislature may question how Saskatchewan’s landscape changes when an underperforming provincial NDP looks to the province’s largest city with a decidedly left wing mayor and council now firmly in charge.

Amid the usual toxic social media environment, much comment has followed the tragic shooting death in August of 22-year-old Red Pheasant man Colten Boushie. A farmer, Gerry Stanley, is charged with murder.

The narrative goes that Boushie, an indigenous man, was murdered in cold blood in a racial hate crime because he was in an SUV simply pulling into a farmyard to ask for help with a flat tire, a fate that would not have befallen a white man in similar circumstances.

At the time, an eyewitness in the SUV named Eric Meechance told of a man in the farmyard, for no apparent reason and saying nothing, simply walking up to their vehicle, attacking it with a hammer and then inexplicably shots ringing out.

At the time, the RCMP issued a media release describing the shooting as resulting from an “altercation” and a related theft investigation.

Indigenous leaders quickly jumped on the RCMP, accusing the police force of fuelling racial tensions; “the RCMP provided just enough prejudicial information for readers to draw their own conclusions that the shooting was somehow justified,” said FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron.

Red Pheasant Chief Clint Wuttunee said “the media’s initial portrayal of the event made the incident sound like a crime was about to be committed by the passengers in the car.”

FSIN vice-chief Kimberly Jonathan opined “there was a perception that it was theft-related and these youth were there for ulterior motives, but that wasn’t the case.”

There is no doubt that Saskatchewan still has a way to go in overcoming racist attitudes and values toward aboriginal people, but Meechance’s story so lacked an air of reality: for all our race relations warts, Saskatchewan is not a place where anyone — regardless of race — is shot dead simply for asking a stranger’s help in a remote and rural area.

Now that police search warrant information has disclosed a much different version of events — attempted thefts at the Stanleys’ and a neighbour’s, an altercation, the SUV narrowly missing the man who tried stopping the vehicle, a loaded gun in the SUV — this does not necessarily justify Colten Boushie’s death.

But it does give it context. And, if there is one thing needed in this case — along with a cooling down of overheated opinions on all sides — it is context.