Last month, the press revealed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) destroyed records of police communications from the night Colten Boushie was murdered. Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous Cree man, was shot to death by Gerald Stanley, a Saskatchewan farmer, in 2016.
The recent report from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), an independent body that investigates public complaints against the RCMP, indicates that the RCMP disposed of their communication records and failed to preserve forensic evidence. It also states that after Boushie’s death, the RCMP surrounded his family’s home with weapons, searched their house unlawfully, and treated Boushie’s mother with blatant disrespect.
The CRCC’s findings underscore what many Indigenous communities have been saying all along: that racial discrimination was at the heart of not only Boushie’s death but also Stanley’s acquittal.
Please pray for:
- The family of Colten Boushie as they grieve these horrific injustices
- An end to the colonial project of policing Indigenous peoples
- The courage to confront racist decisions and actions in your own community
