'The Battlefords have always been polarized': Boushie homicide case expected to highlight racial tension

Gerald Stanley's second-degree murder trial will attract media attention from across Canada when it begins at Battleford's Court of Queen's Bench on Monday.

Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous man, was killed on Stanley's farm near Biggar, Sask. His death and the resulting legal proceedings have incensed people on both sides of the issue, and social media has been alive with debate ever since.

But for some Indigenous people who live in the area, there is no debate. According to them, racial tension exists — and it is getting worse.

'People are very cautious where they go now'

"People are very cautious where they go now, and I've heard Indigenous people saying they don't want to go south of here by Biggar, that area," said Eleanore Sunchild, an Indigenous lawyer who works closely with residential school survivors. "They're scared if their car breaks down, who they can approach?

"People are no longer afraid to speak loud about their racism, and it's troubling, because it also seems to spawn more vigilante groups in our community and in surrounding areas,"

Indigenous and non-Indigenous people have lived together in the area for more than a century, since colonization, but relations between the two groups have often been strained.

I've lived here my whole life. It's a pretty wild town.- Larry Leduc

"I've lived here my whole life. It's a pretty wild town," said Larry Leduc, who lives just outside the Battlefords.

"It's always been the same, back and forth. I don't think it's much worse," he said of tensions in the area.

Leduc believes any racism stirred up by Stanley's preliminary inquiry and the rallies that surrounded it has "faded off into the background again."

That's not so, says Sunchild. 

"The Battlefords have always been polarized. They've been polarized since the hanging of eight warriors during the rebellion. Since then, there's been a great division between the two peoples — and I don't see that changing."

The area is home to seven First Nation communities, where people struggle with the intergenerational effects of residential schools and colonization. Poverty, addiction and crime can be attributed, in part, to years of upheaval in the Indigenous communities, according to Sunchild.

"That's unfortunately what non-Indigenous people see. They don't understand there's a root cause to that, that Indian people are not inherently bad or that we're more prone to committing crimes than non-Indigenous people," she said.

'Recently it's alarming'

Quentin Weenie briefly left his community of Sweetgrass First Nation to attend school in 2015. When he came back, he was shocked at the level of crime and gun violence in the area.

"When I was young, it was unheard of. You'd hear of one [incident] one year, and one several years later. Recently it's alarming. It's a little city with big-city problems," he said.

I've been a vocal defender because there are people here that attack others. This attitude existed prior to this case.- Quentin Weenie

He was also alarmed to hear, and see online, what people were expressing.

"I've been a vocal defender because there are people here that attack others. This attitude existed prior to this case," he said

"People are able to express their opinions from the safety of their own home and what is revealed gets pretty shocking."

'Important case for future relations'

For this reason, Weenie believes the Battlefords are a place divided. 

'It's an important case for future relations. If it goes one way, I'm going to be scared to ask for help if my tire blows out," he said, echoing Sunchild.

After the verdict, no matter what it is, Weenie is hopeful the federal government will take notice of the Battlefords and the surrounding First Nation communities.

"We're described as the most dangerous place in Canada. Now what? Does the federal government step in and create more task forces? The ball's in their court, I guess."