Farmyard light could show the way forward

Rural residents worried about crime need empathy, writes Chris Murphy.

My mother Linda and her four siblings were born to farmers, Elizabeth and Geoffrey Hopkins, in the mid-20th century. They were raised in a two-storey farmhouse overlooking the magnificent Surbiton Valley, about 60 miles southwest of Saskatoon. The farm, which is still in the family, has always had a light affixed to a tall pole right in the middle of the yard. While the light illuminates a small area around the house, my grandparents always told me that the main purpose for the light was to serve as a beacon — an invitation — to travellers who needed assistance.

Before cellphones, steel belted radial tires and block heaters, motorists often found themselves in a lifeor-death situation when stranded in a -40 C Saskatchewan blizzard. Indeed, everyone who has ever lived on the farm can remember helping people who had followed the light. On one occasion, as legend has it, my uncle walked into the farmhouse (through his unlocked front door) and found a man sitting at his kitchen table — having made himself a pot of coffee.

The “visitor” — more startled than my uncle — immediately blurted out that his car had broken down and he had used the farm’s phone to call for help. Instead of questioning the visitor about why he felt compelled to fire up the coffee maker, my uncle sat down with him and shared a cup of joe. When the visitor asked, “Why don’t you people lock your houses?” my uncle replied wryly: “So people like you don’t freeze to death.”

Despite a break-in some years ago, and isolated incidents of minor property theft, the doors of the farmhouse remain unlocked to this day.

However, many unlucky Saskatchewan farmers have been victims of higher rates of property crime. Concerns have reached the point where 93 per cent of delegates of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) recently agreed to lobby for expanded “rights and justifications” for anxious property owners. Although the Criminal Code of Canada already justifies the reasonable use of force to protect people and property, the SARM delegates apparently believe the current law does not go far enough in permitting the use of physical force to repel people who trespass onto their property.

As the lawyer representing the family of Colten Boushie — the young indigenous man who was shot and killed in a farmyard last summer — I have fielded many calls since the SARM resolution. A number have been from Saskatchewan farmers who genuinely fear for their families’ safety and who are frustrated with their property being damaged and stolen. Clearly, none of these farmers wants to shoot another human being, but some of them just don’t know what options — short of arming themselves — they have left.

It is generally understood that relying on the RCMP to deal with trespassers isn’t a valid option. Given the government’s limited resources, and the distance between Saskatchewan’s sparsely placed farmyards, the RCMP’s response time will never average less than 20 minutes.

Most recognize that, by then, the proverbial “war” will be over.

So what can we do? Over cries and shouts that I am naive — very, very naive — I believe the first step in building a lasting, meaningful, relationship is for all the people in rural communities to sit down over a cup of coffee and talk.

Only when we experience one another’s feelings — when we all feel empathy — will the farmyard light once again serve as a beacon. Chris Murphy is the lawyer representing the family of Colten Boushie. Gerald Stanley, 55, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in connection with Boushie’s death on Stanley’s farm last summer. A preliminary hearing in the case is slated to begin April 3.