There鈥檚 a war being fought out there, people.
On the battlefield of the World Wide Web, or the internet, or perhaps the 鈥榠nterweb鈥� for those who like combining words, there are all sorts of shots being fired left and right and back and forth between two groups of people; those who support the victim鈥檚 family, and those who agree with the verdict.
What am I talking about, you may be asking?聽 Only the court case that has gripped Saskatchewan for the past few weeks; Gerald Stanley, a Biggar-area farmer, stood trial before a judge and jury in North Battleford for the death of 22-year old Colten Boushie in August of 2016.聽 Stanley would either be found guilty of second degree murder, manslaughter, or be acquitted.
You don鈥檛 need me to go over the details of the incident, especially since every media outlet in the province 鈥� whether it鈥檚 in print form, online or on TV 鈥� has covered every nook and cranny of the case to the point where I鈥檓 almost begging to see something else hit the news and take over the headlines.
The jury鈥檚 verdict in the Stanley case, as it turns out, was revealed on Friday night.聽 I happened to be at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon (it鈥檒l always be Sask Place to me鈥�) attending a WWE wrestling event when my friend showed me her Facebook timeline, which said the decision would be revealed at approximately 7:30 pm.聽 The show went on, a few matches came and went, and she looked at her phone again.
Gerald Stanley was acquitted.聽 He鈥檒l face no jail time for his part in Boushie鈥檚 death.
Within minutes, or rather within mere moments, the internet proceeded to basically explode and caused a great divide.
Cries and rants of 鈥淢URDERER!鈥� flooded social media, as did shouts of 鈥淩ACIST!鈥� towards those who agreed with the jury鈥檚 verdict.
Oh, did I forget to mention that Boushie happened to be Indigenous?聽 Did I forget to say that before?
That鈥檚 because I made a conscious effort not to.
The biggest wrong-doing in the coverage of this entire case was the fact that one thing seemed to be the prevailing topic that everyone focused on:聽 race.
What it bogged down to, according to some, was virtually the stereotypical 鈥榰s versus them鈥� scenario; an evil white man allegedly gunned down a young First Nations man for no earthly reason.聽 And that just simply isn鈥檛 the truth, if anyone bothered to follow the happenings of the trial on a daily basis.
This incident and the ensuing trial became about race when they shouldn鈥檛 have been, and the media more than played a part in amplifying the drama to crank up those web traffic numbers and nightly news viewers.
I may not have covered the events of the trial, but as a reporter myself, I鈥檓 more than a little ashamed of my media contemporaries.聽 In a delicate situation such as this, it鈥檚 more important than ever to try and maintain a balanced view on both sides of the issue, but any kind of coverage on the Gerald Stanley side (sorry, 鈥渆vil white man鈥�) seemed to be few and far between.
This trial became about race when it SHOULD have been about crime, and more specifically, rural crime.聽 The facts that came out in the trial revealed that Boushie and everyone else in the vehicle had just come from another farmyard that they targeted for stealing.聽 They had also been drinking, which they admitted to in court, and they also had a loaded weapon in their vehicle.
Rural crime is virtually a whole other issue besides what we see in larger towns and urban areas.聽 Criminals know that the response time for police or any other emergency personnel to be called to a remote farmyard can typically be a lot longer than within a larger community area, and they鈥檙e using this information to their advantage.
The facts in the trial also shed light on what Boushie and his friends were doing that day, and apparently, that was engaging in criminal behaviour.
What happened in this incident exactly?聽 I don鈥檛 know for sure, but I choose to believe it was just a terribly tragic accident.聽 I DON鈥橳 believe that Gerald Stanley intended to take a life that day.聽 I mean, who can even make such a conscious choice to do that in the heat of such a moment?聽 I DO believe he intended to protect his home and property from people that he believed were a threat to it, because farmers like him know that theft in rural Saskatchewan has been an escalating issue for the past few years.
I believe that people who agree with the jury鈥檚 decision are not automatically racists, and they may be in fact just realists.
I believe that, like the media, our elected government officials have no business commenting on a trial outcome that is decidedly top-heavy in their support of one side.
I believe that we鈥檙e not going to get anywhere with 鈥渄efeating racism鈥� by playing that card every time something like this happens.
I believe that we all need to do better as human beings, and not just as divided races.
For this week, that鈥檚 been the Ruttle Report.
