Research Catalog

Title

Canadian justice, Indigenous injustice : the Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie case / Kent Roach.

Author

Roach, Kent,

Publication

• Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 307 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"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."--

Subjects

• Criminal justice, Administration of
• Discrimination in criminal justice administration
• Trials (Manslaughter)
• Stanley, Gerald > Trials, litigation, etc
• Boushie, Colten
• Saskatchewan
• Criminal justice, Administration of > Saskatchewan
• Discrimination in criminal justice administration > Saskatchewan
• Trials (Murder) > Saskatchewan
• Trials, litigation, etc
• Trials (Manslaughter) > Saskatchewan
• Self-defense (Law) > Saskatchewan
• Rural crimes > Saskatchewan

Genre/Form

Trials, litigation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

From treaty to "the white man governs" -- Racialized and politicized rural crime and self-defence -- The investigation, polarization and preliminaries -- Jury selection -- Hang fire? -- Indigenous witnesses on trial -- Murder, manslaughter and phantom self-defence -- Acquittal, decision not to appeal, and aftermath -- Can we do better?

ISBN

• 0773556389
• 9780773556386

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library