Trudeau undermines judicial independence

The not-guilty verdict in the tragic death of Colten Boushie has resulted in calls for change to Canada’s justice system after a white farmer was acquitted of killing the young Cree man.

Boushie, a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation, was 22 in August 2016 when he and four friends drove an SUV up the gravel driveway leading to Gerald Stanley’s farmhouse west of Saskatoon.

In the confrontation that followed, Boushie ended up being shot in the head, which is the obvious and heartbreaking part of this tragedy. Colten Boushie didn’t deserve to die.

The details and evidence of the trial have been both contradictory and controversial.

That Boushie and four friends, aged 18 to 24, had been drinking, tried to steal a vehicle using a gun as a crowbar before arriving at Stanley’s farm, then drove onto the property looking for help with a flat, not to steal. In the confrontation that occurred after one youth jumped out of the SUV and tried to start an ATV parked in Stanley’s yard, Stanley said the handgun he used to scare them off discharged accidentally.

In the wake of the verdict, Boushie’s family were understandably outraged. Any parent would feel the same.

Red Pheasant First Nation Chief Clint Wuttunee and Indigenous activists across the country expressed outrage at the verdict and Canada’s justice system, which they insisted perpetuates racism and offers little justice for Indigenous people.

Stanley’s acquittal, meanwhile, may be subject to appeal. And if racism or errors influenced the verdict or investigation, the courts must be permitted to do their work.

That’s why public remarks by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott are so alarming.

“I am going to say we have come to this point as a country far too many times,” Trudeau said during a news conference in California. “I know Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike know that we have to do better.”

Trudeau and his ministers tainted and undermined the independence of Canada’s judicial system with prejudicial remarks made for what appears to be naked political gain. They’ve served neither justice, nor the cause of Colten Boushie..