Stanley fined on firearms charge
Farmer handed decade-long ban on owning guns after guilty plea
Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley pleaded guilty to unsafe storage of firearms on his property on the day he fatally shot Colten Boushie, but will not face jail time for the offence.
A North Battleford judge instead ordered Stanley pay a $3,900 fine and obey a 10-year weapons ban after Stanley ’s lawyer and the Crown prosecutor made a joint sentencing submission Monday at North Battleford provincial court.
Stanley, 56, was charged with two counts of unsafe storage of firearms after RCMP executed a search warrant at his home in August 2016 after the fatal shooting of Boushie on Stanley’s property. A jury acquitted Stanley of seconddegree murder in connection with Boushie’s death in February following a two-week trial.
One of the firearms charges Stanley faced was related to improper storage of six non-restricted weapons; a second charge was related to the improper storage of a restricted firearm. Citing insufficient evidence, the Crown withdrew the charge related to improper storage of a restricted firearm on Monday. Stanley pleaded guilty to the other charge.
His defence lawyer and Crown prosecutor Chris Browne told the judge they believed their joint submission was at the high end of the appropriate range for the charge.
Stanley’s lawyer, Scott Spencer, said his client was prepared to pay the fine by the end of the week and had no qualms about the weapons ban. “Mr. Stanley, quite frankly, wishes he had never owned a gun,” Spencer said.
Judge Bruce Bauer invited Stanley to address the court, but Stanley declined. “No, I don’t want to say anything,” he said.
Stanley’s criminal record was submitted to the judge as part of Monday’s hearing. Noting that the most recent offence was a driving-related matter in 1991, Judge Bruce Bauer declared it had “very little relevance” to Stanley ’s firearms offence and was not an aggravating factor.
Stanley was heckled as he and his lawyer entered the courthouse on Monday afternoon.
People who identified themselves as friends and family of Boushie dogged him, swearing at him and calling him a murderer.
Stanley, surrounded by an RCMP escort, left the courthouse through a back door after the proceedings concluded; he did not speak with media.
We have no closure, I don’t think we’ll ever get that closure and apparently you can get away with murder.
Jace Boushie, Colten Boushie’s brother, expressed frustration with the sentencing after court was adjourned.
“We have no closure, I don’t think we’ll ever get that closure and apparently you can get away with murder,” he told reporters outside court.
“It hurt to see (Stanley) again, to see him walk freely. If that was me or any other Indigenous person that was standing trial for murder or any kind of gun charges, we’d be on remand, we wouldn’t be out walking freely in street clothes, smiling around, we’d be sitting in jail clothes incarcerated.”
Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man from Red Pheasant First Nation, was inside a vehicle that was driven onto Stanley’s farm in the Rural Municipality of Glenside on Aug. 9, 2016.
He was behind the wheel of the vehicle when he was fatally shot.
During his second-degree murder trial earlier this year, Stanley did not deny causing the young man’s death; he told the jury the fatal shot was an accident.
He said he grabbed his Tokarev pistol to fire warning shots in the air after Boushie and his friends trespassed on his land and argued the fatal bullet discharged from the gun as a result of a hang fire — a rare phenomenon where there is a delay between when the trigger is pulled and when the gun goes off.
Boushie’s family has said Stanley’s acquittal was a miscarriage of justice and an example of the poor treatment Indigenous people experience at the hands of the justice system.
Boushie’s mother and uncle, who have been present at all of Stanley ’s previous court appearances, were notably absent Monday.
Alvin Baptiste, Boushie’s uncle, said they were in New York City speaking to representatives at the United Nations about their experience with the Canadian justice system and seeking “justice for Colten.”