Local Panel Discussion Focuses on the Shooting Death of Colten Boushie

Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, a Saskatchewan-based Documentary on the 2016 shooting death of Colten Bushie has won a national award: the 2020 Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary – but almost four years and many awards later : are the structural and systemic issues raised still present in the province?

George Floyd’s death sparked outrage and riot in the United States as accusations of police brutality, unethical and unequal treatment of people of color, and systemic racism rocked the nation. To the North, Canadians set largely idly by and watched with interest, perhaps pondering their own country’s past and present indiscretions--some with an air of superiority.

The award is the latest in a long line of accolades for Director Tasha Hubbard, and signifies the academy and public’s attention to this growing question/issue: does Saskatchewan – and indeed Canada – still harbor deep-seated racism that affect its institutions, here Justice? 

Just prior to winning this award, We Will Stand Up was played at Churchill Community High School in La Ronge to a crowd of roughly 100 persons. Afterward, a panel comprised of Advocates, academics, a lawyer, and recipient of a Global Citizen Award discussed the film and took questions from the audience.

“The criminal justice system, when it’s built to oppress a people, that’s what it does.” said Elanore Sunchild, a practicing defense lawyer for over 20 years whow was involved as council on the case, and proud member of Thunderchild First Nation. She spoke of an ongoing lawsuit against the RCMP for how they handled – or mishandled – evidence related to the investigation.

“—the Gerald Stanley trial there was a little pin-point, a little sliver of hope: maybe this is a chance for them to do things right, for once. When he got the non-guilty verdict that went out the window. That’s why you hear young people say on the prairie, even throughout Canada: ‘reconciliation is dead’, and for me it died that day”

Added another panel member, Mylan Tootoosis. Tootoosis is a Plains Cree-Nakota from Poundmaker Reserve, PHD candidate in Indigenous Studies at the Unviersity of Saskatchewan, and a member of the Prairie Liveliehood Project that ‘secures the necessities for life’ for Indigenous people via governance initiatives and research.

So what can be done to change these insidious and sometimes foundational attitudes and or bias? 

Verna St. Denis, also a panel member in this discussion cites her background in educational foundations as being key.

“Last week I was invited to the college of Law, to consult about adding a required course on anti-racism in law education… this is in 2020.What I learned at this meeting is that there is only one other law school in Canada that includes a course like this, and it was only adopted recently.”

“This is not just an education for Indigenous People, but education for us all”.

St. Denis is a Cree and Metis member of Okemasis First Nation who has been involved in anti-racism education for more than 30-years.

Questions from the tri-communities audience included:

“Why wasn’t there an Indigenous Person on the Jury?”
“Was there backlash against the Native Communities following the verdict?”
“Do you think the Justice System will change?” and
“Could an Indigenous person/hunter give their testimony on the hang fire?”