The mother of Colten Boushie did not mince her words while addressing the Assembly of First Nations in Vancouver Thursday.
An emotional Debbie Baptiste told the assembly her son may be gone but he is not forgotten.
“Nobody’s going to sweep my son’s death under the carpet,” she says. “Time is not going to heal. We’ll never heal. For none of us. For any parent that lost their loved ones. You never forget them.”
Baptiste went on to say the Canadian judicial system is simply failing many young Indigenous people like her son.
“Something has to be done with the RCMP and the justice system. This can’t go on anymore. I don’t want any more deaths.”
A jury acquitted Gerald Stanley of all charges in the shooting death of the 22-year-old Colten Boushie earlier this year.
Boushie was from the Red Pheasant First Nation.
The Cree man was shot at point-blank range by Stanley after the vehicle he was in ventured on to the Saskatchewan farmer’s property in August 2016.
(PHOTO: members of Colten Boushie’s family hold a photo of him. File Photo)