Farmers say they are easy targets

A similar fundraising page for Boushie’s family, established five months ago, had raised $118,000.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice said it is reviewing the case to determine if there will be an appeal. Stanley and his lawyer have not commented.

Other Stanley supporters have been vocal on a Facebook page called “Farmers with Firearms,” set up a few months before the shooting in response to rural crime.

One of its organizers says there has been overwhelming support for Stanley, but also threats against its members. Ryan, who asked that his last name not be published, says farmers are vulnerable. “We have a problem here. It’s not a race problem. It’s a criminal problem,” he said.

In the year following Boushie’s death, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities passed a resolution calling for the federal government to expand the rights and justification for people to defend themselves, people under their care and their property. Both Ottawa and Saskatchewan officials dismissed the idea.

Robert-Falcon Ouellette, a Winnipeg MP who has family from Red Pheasant, told the Winnipeg Free Press he has sympathy for both the Boushie and Stanley families.

“I know most people don’t want to hear that right now,” he told the newspaper. “(But) the Stanley family and many farmers in Saskatchewan have the feeling that their property is not respected and people come on to their farms and steal their stuff.

“I feel sorry for them. They’ve essentially lost two years of their lives. They’ve faced legal bills and great difficulty.”

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs issued a response, describing Ouellette’s words as shocking.

“How is it even possible for an elected representative of the Government of Canada, who ran as an Indigenous candidate, to defend the taking of a human life in order to defend property and ‘stuff?’” said Grand Chief Arlen Dumas. “No property is more valuable than a human life.”