Sunday, February 11, 2018

Reaction From Right To Gerald Stanley Acquittal In Colten Boushie Murder Trial As Ugly and Hypocritical As Expected

I grew up on the prairies close to the Manitoba and Saskatchewan border. Growing up I was keenly aware that bigotry and active discrimination against FNIM was not only accepted, it was expected and often enforced. For example my white friends who got drunk and got into their cars to drive home were stopped by the police, but were driven home to the waiting arms of their parents with a stern finger wag at worst (they were "good boys" after all). My First Nations friends who got drunk and tried to walk home were stopped by the police and either thrown in the drunk tank and charged with public intoxication or they were driven kilometers out of town and told to "walk it off."

Restaurants refused to serve First Nations customers and landlords refused to rent to First Nations families, and businesses refused to hire First Nations people.  "Jokes" were told about how it was perfectly legal to run over "Indians" walking on the side of the road. In one story a friend told me, she had made friends with a First Nations girl and invited her over to a pool party. When her step-father came home to see a First Nations teenager visiting his home, he kicked the girl out of the pool and told his step-daughter to, "never bring a filthy Indian into his home again."

There's a reason why the prairies have been referred to as the Alabama of Canada and Saskatchewan as Mississippi North.


Which brings me to recent acquittal of Gerald Stanley, a Saskatchewan farmer who shot Colten Boushie:


The circumstances behind the shooting aren't entirely clear, but given Gerald Stanley's own statements it is difficult to fathom how the verdict can be considered in any way just, which isn't also to say also sadly not unexpected.


Still, it is a kick in the teeth.

Also expected are those folks on the right who are celebrating the verdict. In their mind Boushie and his friends were trespassing, armed (there was evidently a rifle in the vehicle), and trying to steal from the property. Boushie's friends have another story of course but that is all academic now.

I could post reactions of the right from a number of different sites, but the Facebook groups "Canadians Against the NDP and Liberals (Information & Facts)" will serve as a representative sample since the same language and responses are found elsewhere. Before doing so, and as a bit of a contrast, I thought I would first provide comments found on the group concerning the Bundy standoff in Oregon when armed members of the Cliven Bundy family and their allies trespassed on government property, commandeered (i.e. stole) trucks from the property, and drove from the property into town with relative impunity intimidating locals:



When LaVoy Finicum, one of their members who was armed and reaching for his weapon after being stopped by the police, was killed, the reaction of those posting on "Canadians Against the NDP and Liberals (Information & Facts)" responded as such:


Lets now contrast these reactions to those regarding the acquittal of Stanley and the death of Boushie:


And please note the references to "shit hole" countries, riffs on the "Make America Great Again" slogan, and complaints about the "real" oppression being directed at "old stock Canadians":





Is "Western Justice" the same as "Southern Justice"?


That would be a hard no Richard:









In response, I'm just going to put this here:






Is that so Darrin?




So the police should just take your word for it? 













Right....





Food for thought:




As I said, these are representative of the views on the sites ARC monitors. There are some people, a lot of people in fact, in Saskatchewan who are disgusted and ashamed because of this verdict.

I just wish there were more.
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