Tim McLean
Penalty for Being Indigenous is PrematureDeath
What do you call a white guy defendant in an Indigenous death by murder trial in Canada? Innocent. A monkey could lawyer for a white guy defendant in the murder of an Indigenous person in Canada and the alleged murderer is gonna walk free.
Paraphrasing Donald Trump, 'a white guy could murder an Indigenous person in Canada in broad daylight on Yonge Street and 'get away with it.'
Who gets the death penalty when a white guy commits murder of an Indigenous person in Canada? The dead Indigenous person.
What does the Canadian justice system call a stack of murdered Indigenous people this high? (Hand above your head.) A good start.
Who's the next white guy murderer of an Indigenous person that's gonna walk free? Brayden Bushbie of Thunder Bay.
Colten Boushie, Tina Fontaine, and now for the Trifecta in a breakdown of Canadian justice, Barbara Kentner. It took the Crown in Thunder Bay more than 6 months to decide whether to charge Brayden Bushbie with the murder of Barbara Kentner. He threw a brick at Kentner from a moving vehicle with no provocation on a Thunder Bay street. Two witnesses in the moving vehicle came forward and surrendered themselves the day after the attack!
Barbara Kentner didn't die instantly, neither did Tina Fontaine. The one that got off easy was Colten Boushie. He got his head blown off. That was the easy way.
What's going on in Canadian justice where people commit atrocious acts against Indigenous people and walk away free as a bird? Did you know, for example, Tim McLean, the guy Vincent Li beheaded and started to eat on a Greyhound Bus outside Winnipeg, was Indigenous in Canada? Of course you are aware that Vincent Li has received an absolute discharge and now lives in polite society under an assumed name.
I read the Indian Act a few times and came away believing this legislation is a case for the international court where the charges would be Crimes Against Humanity, based on extreme economic duress imposed on Indigenous people in Canada. I thought the main crime was the legislation's restricted access to the economy imposed on Indigenous communities from coast to coast in Canada.
This year, something else became apparent. It appears the people living under this legislation are subject to the death penalty for being Indigenous in Canada, and, by the looks of it, people have a license to kill Indigenous people in Canada. That is tantamount to genocide. And that too belongs in an international court because sure as hell people in Canada are not gonna be stopped from killing Indigenous people in their midst, facing no consequences whatsoever for their atrocious deeds.
The only problem with genocide and international courts is simple. Genocides have to end before the courts proceed. And in Canada this genocide is far from over.
Freelance Indignation Written by Malcolm 'Mack' McColl in 2020
Tina Fontaine
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Colten Boushie