Description
Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case, by Kent Roach is the trial of Colten Boushie, a twenty-two-year-old Cree man from Red Pheasant First Nation, who was fatally shot on a Saskatchewan farm by white farmer Gerald Stanley in August 2016. Stanley was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter by a jury in Battleford. Kent Roach critically reconstructs the Gerald Stanley/Colten Boushie case in Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice examining historical, legal, political, and sociological background to the case. Was this a miscarriage of justice in the context of Treaty 6 negotiations? Citing the hanging of eight Indigenous men at Fort Battleford, the role of the RCMP, prior litigation over Indigenous underrepresentation on juries, and the racially charged debate about defence of property, self-defence, guns, and rural crime, Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice makes its case. Using trial transcripts and research on miscarriages of justice, Kent Roach looks to jury selection, the controversial "hang fire" defence, how the credibility and beliefs of Indigenous witnesses were challenged on the stand, and Gerald Stanley's implicit appeals to self-defence and defence of property, as well as the decision not to appeal the acquittal. Concluding his study, Roach asks whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's controversial call to "do better" is possible, given similar cases since Stanley's, the difficulty of reforming the jury or the RCMP, and the combination of Indigenous underrepresentation on juries and overrepresentation among those victimized and accused of crimes. Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice provides valuable insight into criminal justice, racism, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada.