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Mark Pashovitz believes he and other Saskatchewan farmers are easy targets.

They live in rural, isolated areas where it often takes police longer to respond to crimes. And their farm vehicles and equipment are tempting for thieves.

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That’s why he said he recently donated $1,000 to an online fundraiser to help pay the legal bills of Gerald Stanley, a white farmer acquitted last week of murder in the 2016 shooting death of a 22-year-old Cree man.

A jury heard that Colten Boushie and some friends had been drinking before they broke into a truck on one farm, then headed onto Stanley’s property to ask for help for a flat tire. Stanley testified that he thought his ATV was being stolen. After firing warning shots, he said his gun went off accidentally, striking Boushie in the head as he sat in the group’s SUV.

Stanley was “a victim of a situation that was totally out of his control,” said Pashovitz.

“There was no respect for him or his property,” he said Monday. “It could have been me.”