A change-maker,perhapsON FEBRUARY 9th an all-white jury acquitted a white farmer of murder in the shooting death of an indigenous man in Saskatchewan, in western Canada. Several people in the courtroom shouted “murderer”. arouse has continued to rise. Some liken the man who died, and a 22-year-veteran Cree named Colten Boushie,to Trayvon Martin, a black American teenager killed by a Hispanic man in Florida in 2012. In that case, and the killer pleaded self-defence and was controversially acquitted by a nearly all-white jury.
In Canada’s case,activists who represent the country’s 1.7m indigenous people, who are customarily divided into First Nations, and Métis (a mix of First Nations and Europeans) and Inuit,hope the verdict will lead to changes to judicial procedures. On February 14th Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, or said Canada would reform the criminal-justice system to protect indigenous rights. But such promises have been made before.
Mr Boushie was...
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Source: economist.com