SASKATOON - The mother of an Indigenous man shot and killed on a Saskatchewan farm says a watchdog's review shows the injustice she faced when she was racially discriminated against by RCMP after her son's death.
“Our family was never going to give up. We were not going to be swept away and treated such as less than human beings,” Debbie Baptiste told a news conference Monday.
Her son, Colten Boushie, died in August 2016 when the SUV he was riding in went onto farmer Gerald Stanley's property near Biggar, Sask.
A jury acquitted Stanley of second-degree murder after he testified that he had fired warning shots and the gun “just went off.”
Concerns were raised about how police handled 22-year-old Boushie's death and the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission studied the RCMP investigation.
The commission's report outlines several missteps by police. It says that officers treated Boushie's mother so insensitively when they notified her of his death that it amounted to discrimination.
Baptiste said the report gives the family a small sense of justice after years of fighting for answers.
“If Colten could hear me now, he'd be proud that we continued fighting and never gave up,” Baptiste said.
“He was not a criminal. He was a human being.”
The report says officers told Baptiste to “get it together,” questioned whether she had been drinking, smelled her breath and searched her home without permission.
“After spending the evening fearing that something had happened to her son and just seeing her worst fears realized, Ms. Baptiste saw her home encircled by a large number of armed police officers and had to endure this treatment from the RCMP members who remained in her home for about 20 minutes,” the commission wrote.
It also found two officers inappropriately showed up to Boushie's wake to update his mother on the criminal case.
Baptiste held back tears as she said she did not deserve that kind of treatment. She said she was further distressed when the RCMP originally cleared themselves of wrongdoing in the way officers responded.
“It did so much hurt to our family and the community.”
The commission found the way police notified the public about the shooting caused suffering to the young man's family, because it allowed people to form an inaccurate picture of what happened.
It says an initial news release by RCMP focused mostly on alleged property crimes and failed to mention someone had been arrested for murder in Boushie's death.
The commission says Boushie didn't leave the vehicle or touch any of the belongings on Stanley's farm.
Other releases updating the public about the investigation's progress were released. But the watchdog concluded RCMP communications gave the public piecemeal information, which fuelled racial tensions online and in the community.
Brad Wall, Saskatchewan's premier at the time, at one point called for calm after a deluge of racist and hate-filled messages were posted online about Boushie's death.
The commission also found RCMP didn't properly protect the SUV Boushie had been riding in, which resulted in the loss of blood spatter and other evidence.
“It is not known, and will never be known, what difference this evidence, as well as any other evidence lost as a result of the failure to protect the vehicle, could have had on the outcome of the case,” the report reads.
The National Police Federation representing front-line officers took issue with the finding of discrimination. It said the review showed police generally carried out a professional investigation.
Alvin Baptiste, Boushie's uncle, told the news conference that the shooting, subsequent investigation and racism has been extremely difficult on family members and their community.
“The day Colten was shot and killed, I seen the hurt in my sister's eyes,” he said. “It hurt me to see her that way and also (to see) how she was treated.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2021
