Aboriginal lives matter
The path to reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples is proving to be a long and difficult journey. Terrible injustices — past and present — continue to surface. Two disturbing examples over the past week demand changes in our criminal justice system. They show why Indigenous peoples believe there is a double standard in this country — one set of laws for Aboriginals and another for everyone else.
The two cases suggest that an Indigenous person’s life is treated as disposable and that their lives don’t have value or don’t matter.
A verdict last week in Saskatchewan shook Canada’s First Nations to the core. An all-white jury acquitted a white farmer in the death of a young Aboriginal man. The farmer shot and killed 22-year-old Colten Boushie during an incident on his farm. Instead of calling the police, the farmer grabbed his gun.
People expect that when a serious case goes to trial, the jury selected to render an impartial and fair verdict is representative of that area. That wasn’t the case in Saskatchewan.
Equally as disturbing were details presented Wednesday in Moncton before the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The family of a P.E.I. Aboriginal woman, who died under suspicious circumstances more than 40 years ago, gave testimony to hammer home the message that her life mattered, that a mother matters and First Nations women matter.
The family never got much co-operation about the death of Mary Francis Paul who was found on the Charlottetown waterfront in 1977. The family was told that Paul had been found dead near the water, after falling, and had a broken neck. Police said was no suggestion of foul play. It was 12 years later before the family found out the body had been in a metal bin, which certainly raises serious suspicions.
Police should give the family a full account of the investigation. If the evidence warrants, the case should be re-opened and perhaps the family might finally get justice, some answers or closure.
Boushie’s family members were in Ottawa early this week to meet with the prime minister and justice minister. The PM later addressed the Commons to outline pending legislation changes to ensure that justice might finally come to Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. He vowed that going forward, recognition of rights will guide all government relations with Indigenous peoples.
The Boushie family, despite their grief and anger, focused not on themselves in Ottawa but on how to work together to make the system and our institutions better, such as reforming juryselection rules and bail processes.
Indigenous peoples are getting impatient with federal promises. It’s time to go from words to action. Tragedy has sparked the national consciousness; now change might finally happen.
Indigenous peoples have long been over-represented in the criminal justice system, whether as victims of crime or in jails. It’s time for juries, verdicts and court benches to be well represented with them as well.