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Canadian justice, Indigenous injustice : the Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie case

Roach, Kent, (author.).

In August 2016 Colten Boushie, a twenty-two-year-old Cree man from Red Pheasant First Nation, was fatally shot on a Saskatchewan farm by white farmer Gerald Stanley. In a trial that bitterly divided Canadians, Stanley was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter by a jury in Battleford with no visible Indigenous representation. In Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice Kent Roach critically reconstructs the Gerald Stanley/Colten Boushie case to examine how it may be a miscarriage of justice. Roach provides historical, legal, political, and sociological background to the case including misunderstandings over crime when Treaty 6 was negotiated, the 1885 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 and rural crime. Drawing on both trial transcripts and research on miscarriages of justice, Roach looks at 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 overrepresention among those victimized and accused of crimes. Informed and timely, Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice is a searing account of one case that provides valuable insight into criminal justice, racism and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Book  - 2019
345.7124 Roa
1 copy / 0 on hold

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Location
Stamford Available
  • ISBN: 9780228012122
  • Physical Description 328 pages
  • Publisher Montreal ; McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
From treaty to "the white man governs" -- Racialized and politicalized rural crime and self-defence -- The investigation, polarization and preliminaries -- Jury selection -- Hang fire? -- Indigenous witnesses on trial -- Murder, manslaughter and phantom self-defence -- Acquittals, decision not to appeal and aftermath -- Can we do better?

Additional Information

Syndetic Solutions - Publishers Weekly Review for ISBN Number 9780228012122
Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice : The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case
Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice : The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case
by Roach, Kent; Borrows, John (Foreword by)
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Publishers Weekly Review

Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice : The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case

Publishers Weekly


(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In this dense and tragic work, Roach, chair of law and public policy at the University of Toronto, dissects the investigation, trial, and aftermath of a controversial case of racialized violence in Canada. In 2016, Colten Boushie, a member of the Cree/Red Pheasant First Nation, was shot and killed by white farmer Gerald Stanley on a Saskatchewan farm. Stanley was acquitted of murder and manslaughter. Roach traces the case-from the incomplete police investigation through the exclusion of potential indigenous jury members, Stanley's lawyers attempts to discredit indigenous witnesses, and complex and confusing testimony regarding rural underpolicing and "stand your ground" self-defense laws-making clear that "the Canadian justice system fails and discriminates against Indigenous people in multiple ways." He also meticulously covers the history of race relations and criminal justice in Saskatchewan, and finishes the book with a call for judicial and legislative reforms to help Canada "do better": changing the process of jury selection, designing juries to specifically include indigenous people, and altering self-defense laws (including informing jurors about the role racial prejudice plays in defense killings, as is done in California), among other reforms. The prose, however, is too detailed and legalistic for many lay readers. Roach takes up important life-and-death issues of injustice in Canada, but most non-specialists will probably not stick around until the end. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.