Systemic Racism in Canada's Justice System?

IN THIS ISSUE MISSING, MURDERED, MISHANDLED: Systemic Racism in Canada's Justice System?

Duration: 17:59

Can Indigenous individuals receive fair treatment in Canada’s policing and courts system? Three high profile murder cases in Canada have highlighted the harsh reality of our justice system when it comes to Indigenous people. The outcome of each case has led to angry protests and cries of racism in our policing and courts — and in two cases, a review of how the case was handled by police. Is the system CREDITS blatantly racist against Indigenous people? Or News in Review is produced by CBC NEWS and Curio.ca is, justice blind? We examine the three cases and their outcomes. GUIDE Writer: Chelsea Prince Editor: Sean Dolan Related News in Review Stories VIDEO Host: Michael Serapio  The Killing of Colten Boushie: Exposing Senior producer: Jordanna Lake Racial Divides New (March 2018) Packaging producer: Marie-Hélène Savard Associate producer: Francine Laprotte  Canada's Disgrace: Our Missing Aboriginal Women (Oct 2014) Supervising manager: Laraine Bone

Visit www.curio.ca/newsinreview, where you Other related Curio.ca content will find an archive of all previous News in Review seasons. As a companion resource, we  Aboriginal People and the Police (CBC recommend that students and teachers access www.cbc.ca/news for additional Radio – ReVision Quest) articles.  Death In Thunder Bay: No Foul Play (The Fifth Estate) Closed Captioning News in Review programs are closed  Does Canada have a jury problem? | captioned for the hearing impaired, for English The Question (The National) as a Second Language students, or for  Healing Justice (Man Alive) situations in which the additional on-screen print component will enhance learning.  Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier (CBC Docs POV) CBC authorizes reproduction of material  Missing and Murdered Indigenous contained in this guide for educational purposes. Please identify source. Women (Collection) News in Review is distributed by: Curio.ca – CBC Media Solutions

VIDEO REVIEW a) What evidence was gathered that pointed to Cormier as Tina Fontaine’s Before Viewing murderer? b) Why was Cormier found not guilty at the Take a look at the card “If You’re Stopped by conclusion of the trial? Police” created by Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services: c) Why is the verdict not being appealed? www.nanlegal.on.ca/upload/documents/know- 5. Tina Fontaine was in the care of the your-rights/police-your-rights.pdf Manitoba’s Child and Family Services (CFS) at What do you notice about the advice provided? the time of her death. Who do you think is the intended audience? a) How did the child welfare system (and society as a whole) fail Tina Fontaine? Discuss the following questions with a classmate: b) What changes are being made to CFS 1. What experiences have you had with racism? policies following her death? 2. What is implicit bias (consult an online source 6. Who is Colten Boushie? What happened to if you need help with this definition)? How him? might implicit bias play a role in interactions between Indigenous people and the RCMP 7. Gerald Stanley shot Colten Boushie and was or other police forces? tried for murdering the young man.

3. What is systemic racism (once again, consult a) What was the outcome of Stanley’s trial? an online source if you need help with this b) What was the public reaction to the definition)? verdict?

Viewing 8. There are allegations that the local RCMP made mistakes in the investigation of Colten 1. Who is Tina Fontaine? What happened to Boushie’s death. her? a) What evidence is there that mistakes were 2. Why is Sue Caribou speaking for the Fontaine made in the investigation? family? b) What are some of the challenges rural 3. Why is Tina Fontaine now known as a RCMP detachments face in major “symbol” of the Missing and Murdered investigations? Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis in c) What role is the police civilian watchdog Canada? now playing in Saskatchewan? 4. Raymond Cormier was arrested for the 9. Who is Stacy DeBungee? What happened to murder of Tina Fontaine a year after her him? death.

10. a) What was the original theory formed by Colten Boushie RCMP about the cause of Stacy DeBungee’s death? Details of the case: b) What evidence is there to counter the original theory? c) Why did the independent report conclude that it is likely that Stacy DeBungee’s Indigenous ancestry may Questions that remain: have contributed to the police neglecting their duty in the investigation?

11. How is Christine M’Lot trying to challenge systemic racism in her school? What has changed? 12. What is the formula for racism? After Viewing

1. Fill in the following chart to compare the three case studies. Stacy DeBungee

Tina Fontaine Details of the case:

Details of the case:

Questions that remain:

What has changed? What has changed?

Do the three cases serve as examples of systemic racism?

2. In the video, Christine M’Lot was trying to challenge racism through education. With a partner or in a group of three design an activity for your class that challenges systemic racism.

THE STORY

Minds On

Take a look at the following three scenarios:

 A 15-year-old girl is placed in the foster care system but is temporarily housed in a hotel. Vulnerable, and inadequately supervised, she is declared missing despite a few documented encounters with police. Later, she is found dead in a nearby river, wrapped in a blanket and partially weighed down by a bundle of rocks. The accused murderer, a 55-year-old man, who admittedly had sex with the girl but denied killing her, is acquitted at the conclusion of his trial.  A 22-year-old man along with a group of friends stops at a farm looking for help with a flat tire. The farmer, assuming the group was there to rob him, approaches them with a pistol. The young man is fatally shot but the farmer is acquitted at trial.  A 41-year-old man is found dead in a river and his death is deemed accidental by police despite the accounts of several witnesses who thought the death was suspicious. His death was not subject to further investigation by police.

Systemic racism is a complicated concept. Racism is the belief that people possess characteristics intrinsic to their group based on their racial identity and that one race is 1. In what ways might systemic racism have superior to others. Systemic racism occurs played a role in the three scenarios above? when established institutions like the courts, police services and schools have systems and 2. What would your reaction be if you learned that procedures in place that disadvantage these scenarios are based on real cases here in specific groups and privilege others. It also Canada? usually involves people employed by those 3. Do you see any examples of systemic racism in institutions who have racist beliefs - whether your own life? they are directly aware of those beliefs or not.

Indigenous Lives Matter disappearances and deaths of thousands of Indigenous women and girls. Is the systemic racism situation involving Indigenous people in Canada similar to the Black Fontaine, Boushie and DeBungee Lives Matter movement in the United States? The three scenarios mentioned above (in addition to The lost lives of Tina Fontaine, Colten Boushie, numerous examples like these) are making and Stacy DeBungee put a focus on the Indigenous Canadians question whether the question — do Indigenous lives matter in the justice system, the courts and the police value Canadian justice system? their lives to the same extent as non-Indigenous Canadians.

Systemic racism The multitude of examples of systemic racism involving Indigenous people includes the story of 18-year-old Neil Stonechild, who froze to death on the outskirts of Saskatoon. His death put the spotlight on a common and long-standing practice of the Saskatoon Police Service involving officers driving intoxicated Indigenous people outside the city limits, dropping them off Tina Fontaine in the freezing cold and leaving them to stumble Even before Tina Fontaine, a child from the back to the city in what they dubbed “starlight Sakgeeng First Nation, was placed in the care of tours.” Stonechild’s “starlight tour” led to his death the Manitoba’s Child and Family Services at the a short distance from where he was dropped off age of 15, she had significant challenges. Her by police. Another story, that of 34-year-old mother, who struggled with alcoholism, had left Barbara Kentner, is equally disturbing. Kentner, an the family and was living in Winnipeg. Her father Anishinaabe woman, was killed after Brayden was beaten to death while enduring a battle Bushby threw a trailer hitch out a car window in with cancer. Her aunt, Thelma Favel, cared for Thunder Bay. Kentner languished in a hospital Tina and her siblings, but needed help for Tina in bed for months before succumbing to her injuries. particular, who was grieving for her father. Bushby was initially charged with aggravated assault and not attempted murder. Those After Tina had run away from home several times charges were only upgraded to second degree to look for her mother in Winnipeg, Favel turned murder after Kentner died. to the foster care system to provide additional support for distraught girl. Instead of being These are just two examples of the questionable placed in a foster home, Tina was temporarily administration of justice against people who housed in a hotel. This situation was not being have committed grievous acts against properly monitored by Child and Family Services. Indigenous Canadians. We haven’t even Unsurprisingly, given her history of running away mentioned the under-investigated

from home, Tina disappeared from the hotel and was later reported missing to police. In the twelve hours before Tina’s death, time during which she should have been flagged as missing by authorities, Tina was seen by police, hospital, and child welfare workers.

On August 17, 2014, Tina’s 72-pound body was found in the Red River wrapped in a duvet cover and weighed down by rocks. There was cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana, and alcohol in her system. girlfriend, Kiora Wuttunee, when the car got a flat tire in a rural area outside of Saskatoon. Raymond Cormier, a 55-year-old man who admittedly had sex with the girl before her death, Colten’s friends claim that they approached the was arrested for her murder. The evidence farm of Gerald Stanley looking for help with their supporting his arrest included a recording of him flat tire. Gerald Stanley and his son Sheldon say talking about her death where he said, “I finished that it appeared that the group was attempting the job.” Witnesses reported that the duvet cover to steal an ATV on their property. The accounts of wrapped around Tina’s body had been seen in the Stanley family and Colten’s friends are so his apartment. There was, however, a lack of divergent that it is impossible to reconstruct what forensic evidence to support the Crown’s case, exactly occurred next. What is clear is that and Cormier was acquitted at trial. Gerald Stanley went to a shed, grabbed a semi- automatic pistol, and ran after the Ford Escape Since her death and the trial of Cormier, Tina that held Boushie and his friends. Fontaine has become a symbol for the mistreatment of young Indigenous women by Stanley asserts that he took a few shots — three in the justice system. While it is unknown exactly total - into the air to scare the group. One of the what happened to cause her death, it is clear bullets discharged when he reached into the that she was failed in a number of ways by the front seat of the Escape and tried to pull the keys systems — and the people who work in those out of the car’s ignition. The bullet entered systems — that were supposed to protect her. Colten’s head behind his left ear and killed him immediately. Colten Boushie Colten Boushie’s mother, Debbie, refers to her Gerald Stanley was charged with second degree deceased 22-year-old son as her “gentle murder after the incident. At his trial, his defence optimist.” She still cannot believe that she has attorneys argued that Stanley pulled the trigger lost him. On August 9, 2016, Colten was out three times when firing the warning shots into the with friends, swimming and having a few drinks. air with only two bullets leaving the gun. The third They were travelling in a vehicle owned by his bullet did not discharge. That third bullet rested in the gun’s chamber in an extremely rare

phenomenon called “hangfire” — a situation Indigenous people to receive unbiased where a bullet does not leave a gun treatment in the Canadian justice system. immediately. Instead, the bullet fired when Stanley was trying to pull the keys from the ignition of the SUV. The defence argument was accepted by the jury and Stanley was acquitted at trial.

The response to Gerald Stanley’s acquittal could be witnessed on social media across the country. Indigenous Canadians felt betrayed by the verdict. Non-Indigenous Canada were divided between believing that there was reasonable doubt in the Crown’s case and others questioning if Colten’s Indigenous Stacy DeBungee ancestry meant that the jury did not value his Brad DeBungee believes that his brother life. Stacy’s death was not investigated by police There were also questions about the based on the assumption that, because he investigation. The crime scene where Boushie was Indigenous, he must have been drunk and was shot was left unprotected for 24 hours after drowned accidentally in a local river. the shooting. When police finally arrived, an Indeed, when Stacy DeBungee’s body was overnight rainfall had washed away vital found in the McIntyre River in Thunder Bay on evidence. Meanwhile, when the police went October 19, 2015, police did deem his death to to Colten’s home on the Red Pheasant First be an accident. However, when Brad Nation to inform the family of his death, they DeBungee challenged the police, he was told searched the home as if it were a crime scene it was an ongoing investigation. That said, they and asked Boushie’s mother if she had been did not secure the area, they did not contact drinking while she wept over the loss of her son. the last people to see Stacy before his death, She wonders if she would have been subjected and they did not track his debit card, which to that treatment had the family not been was used several times after his death. One Indigenous. woman even confessed that she had been in Colten Boushie has become yet another a shoving match with Stacy and pushed him symbol for Indigenous people of someone who into the river. was poorly served by the justice system. A Unsatisfied with the actions of the police, the comment on a private Facebook group used DeBungee family hired a private investigator who by some RCMP personnel highlighted this point, turned up enough evidence that Stacy’s death with one person saying Boushie “got what he may have been suspicious for local authorities to deserved.” Statements like these make the order an Independent Police Review. The Review public wonder if it is even possible for concluded that there had been a neglect of duty

and that the investigation was mishandled. The  The Indigenous population in Canada is about 4 Review also found seven other similar deaths that per cent of the total population. However, the had also not been investigated in Thunder Bay. in-custody rates for Indigenous people are 24 per cent of adult males, 38 per cent of adult How do we move forward? females, 34 per cent of youth males, and 49 per cent of youth females. The deaths of Tina Fontaine, Colten Boushie, and Stacy DeBungee are all cases in which individuals So how do we move forward? We have to first may not have received fair treatment by the acknowledge that there may be a problem and Canadian justice system. There were passionate that we are all responsible for working together to public reactions to all three cases. Tina Fontaine’s maintain justice for all Canadians. We have to death led to the Manitoba CFS changing their recognize that privilege still plays a role in policy of housing youth in hotels. Her death was accessing justice in Canada. We all have to also instrumental in the formation of the National engage in this very painful conversation. We all Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous have to be part of the solution. Women and Girls. Colten Boushie’s death and the trial of Gerald Stanley have made all of To Consider Canada question whether the justice system is fair to Indigenous citizens. Stacy DeBungee’s When delivering the Truth and Reconciliation death launched a full-scale inquiry into systemic Commission’s report, Murray Sinclair presented the racism in the Thunder Bay Police Force. While following: these are individual cases, they represent the tip of the iceberg of stories in which people of We must understand that the lives of Aboriginal Indigenous ancestry have not received fair “people across Canada are connected to the lingering treatment by Canada’s justice system. effects of residential schools and that many of the most destructive attitudes are perpetuated in our public Startling statistics education. An article from the Government of Canada’s We must remember that at the same time Aboriginal Department of Justice in January 2017 reports “children were made to feel inferior, generation after some startling statistics: generation of non‐Aboriginal children were exposed to the false belief that their culture was superior.  28 per cent of Indigenous people report being Imperialism, colonialism and a sense of cultural victimized in the last 12 months compared to 18 superiority linger on. per cent of non-Indigenous people. “ ”  Violent victimization rates for Indigenous females are double that of Indigenous males and triple How are cases like those of Tina Fontaine, Colten that of non-Indigenous females. Boushie, and Stacy DeBungee continuations of the same old patterns highlighted by Sinclair?  Indigenous homicides account for 33 per cent How can we seek reconciliation? of the total in Canada. This is 10 times the rate of non-Indigenous homicides.

Sources: Balkissoon, D. (February 1, 2018). Even after death, Canada denies Tina Fontaine dignity. The Globe and Mail. Barghout, C. (February 23, 2018). We've all failed her. We as a nation need to do better for our young people. CBC News. Department of Justice. (January 2017). JustFacts: Indigenous Overrepresentation in the Criminal Justice System. Government of Canada. Retrieved from: www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/jf-pf/2017/jan02.html ______(June 2, 2015). For the record: Justice Murray Sinclair on residential schools. Maclean’s. Friesen, J. (January 30, 2018). RCMP Left Colten Boushie Vehicle in the Rain with the Door Open. The Globe and Mail. Ireland, N. (September 25, 2016). Canadian police must acknowledge racial bias to fix it, Indigenous advocates say. CBC News. Martens, K, and Roache, T. (February 15, 2018). RCMP Facebook Group claims Colten Boushie ‘got what he deserved’. APTN National News.

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