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Watchdog reports find RCMP discriminated against Colten Boushie's family following shooting death

The independent agency that investigates public complaints about the RCMP found that members' treatment of Colten Boushie's mother the night her son died were discriminatory. Additionally, the CRCC reiterated there was no evidence that Boushie participated in any property offences.

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More than three years after an internal RCMP investigation cleared its officers of mistreating Colten Boushie’s mother the night he died, an independent oversight agency determined the family’s allegations to be true.

Colten Boushie’s uncle, Alvin Baptiste, filed a review report with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. The commission found that not only was the way the RCMP officers who notified Debbie Baptiste her 22-year-old son was killed insensitive, but they also treated her with such insensitivity that it was discriminatory.

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Additionally, the CRCC found and reiterated there was no evidence that Boushie participated in any property offences.

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The complaint made by Boushie’s family expressed concern about the manner in which RCMP members surrounded Debbie Baptiste’s home and informed her of his death that night. They also expressed concern about media releases sent by the RCMP that made Boushie appear to be a criminal.

The family’s final complaint, about RCMP officers conducting a high-speed pursuit while a witness connected to the shooting was in the back seat of the vehicle, had been the only one the RCMP substantiated in the internal report.

The CRCC substantiated all of the family’s complaints, finding the RCMP lacked the lawful authority to search Debbie Baptiste’s home and said the family suffered emotional prejudice as a result of the search. The CRCC pointed to the RCMP members’ actions, which included asking Baptiste about her sobriety, smelling her breath and looking inside of her microwave to verify she had put her son’s dinner there.

It found that the manner in which the RCMP members surrounded the home — “carbines at the ready,” the report noted — and searched the home was not proportionate to a reasonable risk assessment or with appropriate cultural or compassionate considerations. The CRCC found RCMP failed to obtain informed consent to search Baptiste’s home and began the search before an attempt to obtain consent was made.

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In its report, the CRCC said that, in addition to notifying Debbie Baptiste her son had died, some RCMP members explained that they were also searching for one youth who had been with Boushie at Stanley’s property.

“Mr. Boushie and his friends had entered the property after their vehicle developed a flat tire. A confrontation with the property owner and his family had followed. Although it was clear that only the property owner had fired a weapon, killing Mr. Boushie, some of the RCMP members had information indicating that the youth they were looking for might be armed,” the report said.

The CRCC observed the RCMP made no mention of the law to justify its members’ approach, search and treatment of Debbie Baptist at her home.

The commission additionally found that some of the RCMP’s media releases resulted in a disproportionate focus on theft when discussing Boushie, which caused anguish for the family because the releases “could leave the impression that Mr. Boushie’s killing was justified or that his death was ‘deserved.'” It noted this narrative immediately emerged on social media after news of Boushie’s death came out, fuelling racial tensions.

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The commission made recommendations relating to guidance for officers about warrantless searches of a home, as well as adopting communication protocols to nationally review all media releases regarding serious or sensitive matters involving Indigenous peoples or communities.

The RCMP’s Commissioner Brenda Lucki — who last year notably said she struggled with the definition of systemic racism before accepting systemic racism exists in all institutions including the RCMP — accepted all but one finding made by the CRCC. Lucki disagreed with the finding that the manner in which the RCMP members surrounded Debbie Baptiste’s home on Red Pheasant Cree Nation was unreasonable.

Second review report findings

In a second review report, on a public interest review initiated by a previous acting chair, the CRCC found that while the RCMP’s investigation was “generally professional and reasonable,” there were issues of significant concern, including the failure to protect the vehicle Boushie had been sitting in when he was shot. The commission found that this, along with an unreasonable delay in obtaining a search warrant, led to the loss of blood splatter evidence after it rained.

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“It is not known, and will never be known, what difference this evidence, as well as any other evidence lost as a result of the failure to protect the vehicle, could have had on the outcome of the case,” the review report stated.

In the public interest review, the CRCC additionally found the fact RCMP members went to the funeral hall where Boushie’s wake was being held led to further deterioration in its relationship with the family. Although RCMP attended to provide an investigative update, their attendance for this purpose was unreasonable, the report said.

The CRCC forwarded both reviews to the RCMP in early 2020. The RCMP provided a response to the chair-initiated complaint in December and to the review of the family’s complaint at the end of January. 

The CRCC found the RCMP’s delayed response to be unreasonable and found this too to be problematic, leaving Boushie’s family to wait “for an unnecessarily long time” for answers they had been waiting on for years.

In a statement provided through the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, Chris Murphy, a lawyer representing Debbie Baptiste, said “meaningful action must be taken to right wrongs and to restore trust and dignity.”

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“The foundations of the relationship between the RCMP and Indigenous peoples teeters on a knife’s edge while the public watches,” Murphy said. “The RCMP will decide on which side the organization will fall.”

Police union responds 

The National Police Federation, the union which represents members of the RCMP, issued a statement Saturday, saying the CRCC’s report “dismisses or outright ignores central facts and evidence,” resulting in the impartiality, dedication and professionalism of its members.

The union asserted, for example, that the CRCC “unconditionally accepted” and only reflected on Boushie’s family’s interpretation of the interactions with police during the night he died and during a later conversation at a funeral hall — as well as social, historical and legal context.

But it said the CRCC “outright discards” the attending officers’ accounts that they “both felt and demonstrated compassion and respect towards” Boushie’s mother over the loss of her son.

The union questioned the CRCC’s expertise and methodology to make its finding relating to discrimination and characterized the report’s findings as “broad-brush.” The union said the report fails to touch on what it described as the real issue, “the government’s ongoing lack of investments and other supports for marginalized communities including Indigenous peoples.”

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“Our Members are repeatedly called upon when these underfunded government systems fail and — too often — our Members become either the physical or social target on these significant and deep-seated societal issues,” the union’s statement said.

The union additionally criticized the RCMP’s acceptance of the report’s findings as “demeaning” to RCMP members in Saskatchewan and across Canada.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Saskatchewan RCMP Acting Commanding Officer, Chief Supt. Alfredo Bangloy said they have implemented 16 of the 17 recommendations that fall within its authority. He said they are on track to complete the remaining recommendation by April 1, when all Saskatchewan RCMP employees will have completed a “Cultural Awareness and Humility” course.

Boushie died on Aug. 9, 2016 from a gunshot wound to the head while on a property owned by Gerald Stanley outside Biggar. A jury found Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in February 2018.

Boushie’s family lodged a public complaint to the CRCC after a police-conducted review internally cleared officers of mistreating his mother, Debbie Baptiste, in the hours after his death. The CRCC’s then-acting chair initiated a public interest review to examine whether a reasonable investigation into Boushie’s death was conducted.

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The review examined whether actions taken by the RCMP followed its training, practices and policies, if those are reasonable, and if the RCMP’s conduct “amounted to discrimination on the basis of race or perceived race.”

The StarPhoenix obtained copies of both the review of the chair-initiated complaint and the review of a complaint made by Alvin Baptiste.

The commission will release the public interest review online Monday and a summary of the review of the family’s complaint at a later date.

Boushie’s family will be speaking at a media conference on Monday morning.

tjames@postmedia.com

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