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Now, with a trial about to get underway under heavy security, there are worries that racial tensions could flare again.

“Here’s a situation where you’ve got some folks that are different from each other; there’s a lot of unknown between each other and a lot of mistrust going both ways,” said John Lagimodiere, editor and publisher of Eagle Feather News and an Aboriginal awareness consultant. “It’s a hot-point button that could drive more of a wedge between our communities.”

Colten’s uncle, Alvin Baptiste, told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix this week the looming trial fills him with dread.

It's a hot-point button that could drive more of a wedge between our communities

“It’s just reopening wounds over and over and we just can’t seem to heal.… I just don’t want to hear or see things and I’m trying to move forward in my life and leave this in the past, but I have to deal with it.”

This much is known about the shooting: On Aug. 9, 2016, Boushie, a resident of the Red Pheasant First Nation, joined a bunch of friends for a day of swimming and drinking.

At one point, they drove onto Stanley’s farm near the town of Biggar. There was a confrontation and Boushie was fatally shot while inside the vehicle.

Why Boushie and his friends ended up on the property is not certain. There is a suggestion they had a flat tire and pulled onto the property to look for help. An RCMP press release initially suggested the shooting might have occurred in the context of a theft.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

Even though no theft charges were filed, many of Stanley’s supporters latched on to the theft narrative, asserting farm owners’ rights to protect their properties from trespassers. Many farmers took to social media, posting pictures of rifles sitting in the cabs of their trucks and tractors. They insisted there wasn’t a race problem, just a crime problem.