Last weekend I was driving and noticed a crowd of people by the post office. Being a nosy type of person, I parked and went to see what was going on. People were protesting about Gerald Stanley being found not guilty of murdering Colten Boushie. I talked to some people and left because I really did not know much about it.
So, I thought I'd put my law degree to good use and did some research. Gerald Stanley is a white man, Colten Boushie was a young Aboriginal man, and the jury that acquitted Stanley had been all white. So of course, I've been hearing all kinds of things about what happened, including that people are allowed to shoot others in self-defense. The thing is this case was not about self-defense. No? No.
In Canadian law, a person can only use lethal force in self-defense if he faces the threat of serious injury or death to himself or another person. That threat did not exist here, so there was no claim of self-defense. Instead the jury believed it was an accident. Okay, you're thinking, tell me more.
The jury found Stanley was not guilty because they believed his claim of two extremely rare malfunctions. The first thing was hangfire, in which a bullet discharges several seconds after the trigger is pulled. They also believed that there was a second malfunction - this one of the gun itself that could not be done again by experts testing Stanley's gun.
Stanley testified that he believed he or his family was in danger after he and his son had a confrontation with several young native people in an SUV on his Saskatchewan farm, so he went to his shed and loaded a pistol with what he thought was two shells. He then went outside and fired it into the air, pulling the trigger twice.
Two men ran from the SUV, leaving in the vehicle two young women and Colten Boushie, who was either sleeping or passed out in the vehicle.
Stanley claims he wanted to make sure the gun was now safe, so even though he believed he had only put two shells into the gun, he pulled the trigger several more times and nothing happened. He then claimed he opened the slide and removed the magazine, also to ensure the firearm was safe. Are you thinking, "Didn't he load the gun to protect himself?"
Stanley says he then thought his wife may have been run over by the SUV and was still under it because she was no longer on the lawn mower she had been on. So, he walked over and began to look under the SUV. He heard the SUV's motor rev so he walked around and reached in to turn the motor off with his left hand while holding the gun in his right hand. Eschia!
And that's when Stanley claims the hang-fire happened. The gun supposedly went off by itself, killing Boushie even though Stanley had opened the action, pulled the magazine out, and repeatedly dry-fired it. And even though hang-fires are extremely rare, and normally the bullet fires almost immediately after the trigger is pulled.
Very, very difficult to believe
I believe Stanley; do you? Wink, wink! Come on now, seriously, how many of you believe this actually happened? The jury did, but I know I find it very, very difficult to believe! In fact, I don't believe it.
Never mind the two extremely unlikely malfunctions, one with the bullet and one with the gun, remember that Stanley says he loaded his firearm with two shells to protect himself, and then fired both shells in the air, leaving his firearm empty and useless for self-defense. Double eschia!
I wonder if the jury would have believed it if things were reversed? If Colten said he loaded his pistol with two bullets to protect himself then leaned out of the car, fired his only two bullets as warning shots, pulled the trigger several times and pulled out the magazine to ensure his gun was empty, and then at least a minute later … the gun went off by itself and killed Stanley? I don't think so.
Now I know why the Federal Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister agreed to meet with the Boushie family. Now I know why Colten Boushie's family as well Indigenous and non-Indigenous people across Canada are angry and demonstrating.
Now I'm angry too because there was no justice for Colten Boushie.