‘I was blind to the racial tension’: Colten Boushie’s family speaks out about the aftermath of his death

UPDATE: On November 2, 2017, the RCMP exonerated itself following a probe into its treatment of Colten Boushie's family on the night he died.

The shooting death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie on Aug. 9, 2016 left his family reeling. It also shone a light on the racism Indigenous people continue to face in Canada. Boushie’s mother and two brothers gave an exclusive broadcast interview to Out in the Open.

Colten Boushie's dinner was left in the microwave.

His family waited for him while watching movies in their small three-bedroom trailer. He was late coming home from a day of swimming with friends.

That's what his mom, Debbie Baptiste remembers about the night her son died.

Baptiste said she had "mother's intuition" when she heard an air ambulance flying above the reservation earlier that day.

"I looked up at it and I said, please don't be for my son."

Several police cars drove up to the family home that night, according to Baptiste. Within minutes, she said RCMP officers were on their front porch as others searched around the trailer.

"Are you Debbie?" she recalls one officer asked, "What is Colten Boushie to you?"

"That's my son," she replied.

"Your son is deceased," the officer said.

Baptiste said she just started screaming and kept screaming

Hear Piya’s full interview with Colten Boushie’s family

Officers had their weapons out as they searched the perimeter, she said, while others began to "ransack" the house.

"They started searching all over and started asking me a bunch of questions...[like] what we were doing," she said.

"And I said, 'We're watching movies and waiting for my son to come home. His food is in the microwave.' Then a police officer went into the kitchen and looked into that microwave to make sure that food was in there."

Baptiste said she kept shouting that there must be a mistake, that it isn't her son Colten they'd found. She said one officer "had my arms" and told her to "get it together. ...[T]hat officer that told me to get it together was smelling my breath and asked me if I was drinking and I said no."

"...[T]hat officer that told me to get it together was smelling my breath and asked me if I was drinking and I said no." Debbie Baptiste

She thought to herself, "What does this have to do with anything that just happened to my son? I'd like to know if they would do that ... if it was a white woman, if they'd roll up on her the way they did to me."

The RCMP responded to Baptiste's allegations in an email statement sent to Out in the Open.

In it, the RCMP states it has met with a representative of Colten Boushie's immediate family, listened to their concerns, and have started a "review of the actions undertaken by our members that night."

It continues, "We want to ensure that the actions of our members were appropriate."

The statement also says that the RCMP can't comment any further because the Boushie case is in front of the courts.

Read the full RCMP response here

The day of the shooting

Out in the Open cannot verify many facts about the night Colten Boushie died.

But what we know for sure is that Boushie was shot on a nearby farm.

That farm is owned by a farmer named Gerald Stanley.

The Stanley farm in rural saskatchewan (CBC News)

Stanley has been charged with second degree murder.

He's pleaded not guilty.

What happened between the moment Boushie and his friends drove onto the Stanley property, and the time of Boushie's death, is unclear and the subject of differing accounts.

The RCMP prepared a search warrant application known as an ITO to obtain permission to gather evidence on Gerald Stanley's property. The 18-page document summarizes initial police information gathered from officers on the scene, three of the four people with Boushie that night, as well as the Stanley family and their neighbours.

The document hasn't been tested in court and contains unproven allegations and conflicting accounts. CBC News has surveyed that document, and you can read their reporting on it here.

Gerald Stanley is scheduled to return to court in April 2017 for a preliminary hearing.

Outside the courtroom, there are two stories being told about this case.

One is about deep-seated racism against Indigenous people. It is unclear whether Colten Boushie's shooting was racially-motivated, but his mother Debbie Baptiste says she doesn't think her son would have been shot if he wasn't Indigenous.

The other is about farmers protecting their properties after a rash of thefts.

Why one Saskatchewan man says farmers need firearms

Out in the Open reached out to Gerald Stanley's lawyer, Scott Spencer, for an interview with his client. He said Stanley has no plans to speak publicly until after the legal proceedings.

Spencer sent Out in the Open the following statement.

"I have seen no evidence that race played any part in the tragic circumstances that escalated on the Stanley Farm on August 9, 2016." Scott Spencer, Lawyer for Gerald Stanley

"From the defense perspective, our biggest concern is that Gerald gets a fair trial. And we are very concerned that there's been a lot of misinformation reported in the media, both mainstream and to a greater extent social media. It's unfortunate that individuals who don't know what happened that day continue to make statements that are simply not founded in fact. In doing so, they risk compromising the legal process. As I have said throughout, I believe that media attention to this matter could compromise Gerald's right to a fair trial and I encourage everyone to reserve judgment until they know the facts so that they can make a fair and intelligent comment. From my personal perspective, I have seen no evidence that race played any part in the tragic circumstances that escalated on the Stanley Farm on August 9, 2016. And I'm confident that will be borne out at trial."

Racism in the community

Issues between Indigenous people, law enforcement and the broader rural community have been front and centre since the shooting.

"Racial tension to me is something that's been ongoing and swept under a rug, but still there," said William, one of Colten Boushie's brothers.

William Boushie, brother of Colten Boushie, speaks to media during a rally outside of the Saskatchewan Provincial Court in North Battleford (Liam Richards/The Canadian Press)

Soon after the case became national news, racist comments were directed at Indigenous people, especially online.

Some of those comments - including a few praising Boushie's death - were found on the now-defunct Facebook page titled Saskatchewan Farmers Group.

In the wake of the shooting, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall asked for the racist comments to stop and said that racism has no place in Saskatchewan.

"I was blind to the racial tension," said William, "I came from Montana and I have a lot of Caucasian friends. I come up here and I didn't believe it … I could see it in people's eyes. But I didn't want to believe it. I didn't even think of the word racism until I came here and these events happened."

Colten Boushie and his brothers lived in Montana with their mother, but came back to Saskatchewan after Colten graduated from high school.

"We lived in a city [in Montana]," Baptiste said, "We didn't have any elders around us or any of our culture going on. I wanted my sons to live the life I grew up in."

By their accounts, the family loved getting back to their roots in Canada.

"We were happy living out in the country," Baptiste said. "The boys were able to cut wood. I was able to go pick sage and sweetgrass. Just getting back into our culture and we were happy with that."

Calls for justice

The family has launched a petition demanding an out-of-province lead investigator and Crown prosecutor.

"This Battleford community has a long history with Caucasian people and Indigenous people...It can go all the way back to treaty signings. That's how old some families are out there in the Battleford area. Some of those people, they can be RCMP. They can be a judge. They're in a position of power to make decisions based on that and not, you know. We want justice," said Jace Boushie.

According to William Boushie, even the backlash to that petition, especially online, was racially fueled and cruel.

RCMP officers stand outside the Court of Queen's Bench in Battleford, Sask., where Gerald Stanley's bail hearing held. (CBC News)

"There are people with fake profiles, fake accounts, they get on there and they write… racist remarks about my brother. They judge him just because of the colour of our skin and they actually didn't even know him as a human being," William said.

That human being, according to his family, was a young man who was "always smiling" and loved to cook. You could often find him in the kitchen, his mother said.

"[He was] somebody that you could always talk to and socialize with," William said. "He liked to work. Liked to cut wood and do work."

Baptiste said she is seeing grief counsellors. She adds that it's the prayers and love from the community that encourage her to keep going.

The family also hopes things will start to change in the divided community.

"[People] need to start teaching their kids that we're all the same," Baptiste said. "We all drink the same water, we all breathe the same air. The colour of our skin shouldn't matter."

LISTEN: Out in the Open's full hour on what the Colten Boushie case says about us

With files from CBC News

Web developer Joan Sumner & web design Craig Desson and Ben Shannon.

What does Colten Boushie say about us?

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