THUNDER BAY - Nichole Langdon, who stood out in the cold while the beat of drums and songs cut through the night air, said what happened in a Saskatchewan courtroom last week is not what justice is supposed to look like in Canada.
“Justice does not look like what happened,” she said. “It doesn’t look like someone can do something like that and not face any real action or anything. That’s what it doesn’t look like.”
More than 100 people gathered at Hillcrest Park on Saturday evening to hold a vigil for Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous man from Red Pheasant Cree Nation, Sask., who was shot and killed on a farm by Gerald Stanley on Aug 9, 2016.
On Feb. 9, an all-white jury in a Battleford, Sask., acquitted Stanley, 56, of a second-degree murder charge after he claimed the gun went off accidently and that he feared for his life. In a reaction to what many are calling an injustice for Boushie and his family, vigils were held in cities across Canada on Saturday.
“Yesterday when I heard what had happened, I was angry,” Langdon said. “I was worried, because I have children. I have two sons and a daughter and I thought about them and the future for them. I was just confused and I didn’t know how to react because this keeps going on.”
Langdon, along with Jana-Rae Yerxa, organized the vigil in Thunder Bay, which included drums, songs, calls to action to support the Boushie family in their pursuit of justice, and to end violence against Indigenous people.
Yerxa said what happened in Saskatchewan is not very different from what is happening in the city of Thunder Bay, with Indigenous people afraid to even walk the streets.
“A year ago, Barbara Kentner was hit with a trailer hitch and less than two weeks ago we gathered at McKenzie Street where she was attacked," she said. "At the root of all of this, with Colten Boushie, with Barbara Kentner, is the anti-Indigenous racism that feeds that violence and the justification for the violence against Indigenous people.”
Both Langdon and Yerxa said they hope the vigils will provide some form of comfort to the Boushie family by letting them know that there are people who care about them and Colten right across the country.
“The family has a long road ahead in terms of seeking justice,” Yerxa said. “And that is why financial contributions to the family is important. It’s a small way we can offer continued support for the long road they face in terms of seeking justice for Colten, for themselves, and really for all of us in this country.”
Carloyn Whatley was at the vigil on Saturday and she said it is important for all people to show support to Indigenous people, who she said are facing injustices everyday.
“I think there is a sense we can’t tolerate such extreme racism anymore,” she said. “There is a change happening and I think Indigenous voices need to rise to the top of the fray but they need the rest of settler Canada to stand as allies in that.”
“I feel like the voices that need to be heard are Indigenous ones, but we need to show we are allies,” she continued.
Langdon knows that what happened in that Saskatchewan courtroom is not what justice should look like in Canada. For Yerxa, justice can only look like the end of justifying the deaths of Indigenous people.
“Justice looks like where don’t need to worry about asking for help or walking down the street because we are brown, because we are Indigenous people,” she said. “Justice looks like safety on our own homeland for our own people right across this country.”
