A white farmer’s acquittal of murdering Colten Boushie, a young First Nations man, has underlined the persistent racial divide in Canada

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

After an all-white jury cleared a white farmer of murdering a young First Nations man, competing crowdfunding pages have underlined the persistent racial divide in Canada’s prairies.

Gerald Stanley, 56, was acquitted on Friday of murdering Colten Boushie, 22, from Saskatchewan’s Red Pheasant First Nation, in a verdict which provoked fresh criticism of the way Canada’s justice system handles cases involving indigenous people.

Canada: indigenous groups urge reform after shock of white farmer's acquittal Read more

Since then, supporters from each side have taken to social media in order to raise money for the Stanley and Boushie families – with both pages surpassing $120,000 in donations.



Erica Violet Lee, who launched the campaign to support the Boushie family, said that the crowdfunding push was also intended to keep the memory of Colten Boushie alive.

“Almost every indigenous person knows each other [in the region] because we have a tight and loving community, ” says Lee. “I’ve seen stuff like this over and over again. But now, we know to document things. We know to talk about it –otherwise people are too willing to forget.”

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 people have donated money to help Stanley cover his legal fees.

Several previous pages supporting Stanley have been taken down for breaching GoFundMe user policies, but the crowdfunding service has declined to remove the latest version.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gerald Stanley, 56, was acquitted on Friday of murdering Colten Boushie, 22. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

The company prohibits the use of its services for the legal defence of alleged crimes associated with “hate, violence, harassment, bullying or discrimination”.



The Stanley page has angered many in the indigenous community. “I was shocked by the amount that they managed to raise in one day – and the amount of malice involved in the donations themselves,” says Chelsea Vowel, a prominent Métis writer.



Sam Olson, the administrator behind the Stanley page, did not respond to a request for comment. But some contributors echoed Stanley, who argued in court that he feared his farming equipment would be stolen. According to Boushie’s family, Clayton and his four companions pulled into Stanley’s farm after a flat tyre.

“There was no respect for him or his property,” Mark Pashovitz, a farmer who donated $1,000, told the Canadian Press. “It could have been me.”



Demographic shifts in recent years have also increased tension in Canada’s western provinces: white farmers are declining in number as their children opt out of the family business and move to larger cities. Meanwhile, the indigenous population is growing quickly and in some areas, outnumbering the farmers.



Vowel said that some farmers live their whole life beside an indigenous reservation and never set foot inside. “Here we are living right beside people and there’s such a divide between us. It’s like the Marianas trench. It’s just so intensely deep,” she said.

On Tuesday, Boushie’s family met the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and other ministers in Ottawa.

Afterwards, Jade Tootoosis, a cousin of Boushie, said: “The most significant thing is that there was a general consensus that there are systemic issues regarding indigenous people and the judicial system and that each person has promised to work with us to make concrete changes within the system. And that’s exactly what we came here for.”

• This article was amended on 14 February 2018 to correct Gerald Stanley’s age from 66 to 56 and to remove a reference that said Chelsea Vowel was a lawyer.

