By Angela Brown

Rally planned to support Boushie family

Apr 5, 2017 | 10:44 PM

Family and supporters of Colten Boushie will hold a rally to draw attention to what they see as injustices in the legal system and handling of the case.

Gerald Stanley, 55, is facing charges of second-degree murder related to the August 9, 2016, incident on Stanley’s farmyard, near Biggar. Boushie, a 22-year-old Red Pheasant First Nation man, was killed in the incident. A preliminary hearing began Monday to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial. 

“I’m hoping people will come to support the family,” Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) youth representative Andre Bear said of the rally. “I am hoping people will come to see for themselves so they can properly identify the mistreatment of people in the legal system based on their race.”

According to the RCMP, Boushie was in a vehicle on Stanley’s property when a confrontation erupted. His family has said he and four other passengers were trying to get help with a flat tire.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

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Bear attended Tuesday’s session of the preliminary hearing and said he believed the victim’s family has been treated unfairly by the court system. For example, he asked why the victim’s family members received a pat-down in addition to passing through a metal detector before entering the court room, while the accused who is out on bail did not undergo the same treatment.

The Boushie family obtained Chris Murphy as legal counsel to represent them because they had concerns about the case from the start.

The Globe and Mail previously reported the Boushie family felt the RCMP treated them disrespectfully. When police visited Colten Boushie’s mother Debbie Baptiste at her home on Red Pheasant First Nation last year to inform her her son had died, they searched her house without an explanation.

Murphy previously questioned why the first news release from the RCMP reported a police investigation into a theft of property but did not disclose the fact that Gerald Stanley had been charged with shooting Boushie.  

On Tuesday, Murphy questioned the escalated police presence on the first two days of the preliminary hearing, believing it unwarranted. He added it could send the wrong message to the community. To anyone driving near the court house it would appear the entire block was under “lockdown.” However, he said there had been no threats made and there was no reason for the amount of police which, in his 15 years of experience, he called “unusual.”

History a concern

Colten Boushie’s cousin Jade Tootoosis said Tuesday the escalated police prsence make her feel “on edge,” counting a total of roughly 10 officers manning the barricades and the parking lot across the street, and and another 10 inside the court building.  

“What is it they are expecting is going to happen?” she said, adding if police want to build relationships and provide support to the family they should increase communication, not increase police numbers.

“They call it protection,” she said. “Protecting who, and from what? That is not clear-cut to us, especially with the history my family has had thus far with Colten’s case and the RCMP.”

Tootoosis said if police are concerned about “farmers with firearms,” alluding to the Facebook group, they should be pursuing them, not filling the court “intimidating my family.”

The rally will take place outside the Provincial Court building in North Battleford at 9 a.m., Thursday morning.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow