In the wake of Colten Boushie’s death, Jesse discusses racial tensions in Saskatoon with panelists Betty Ann Adam (Saskatoon StarPhoenix), Rob Innes (Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan), and Mylan Tootoosis (PhD candidate, University of Saskatchewan). Recorded live at Winterruption in Cosmo Seniors Centre on January 20th, 2017.
Betty Ann Adam’s Twitter: @SPBAAdam
Rob Innes’s Twitter: @innes_rob
Mylan Tootoosis’s Twitter: @MylanMurdo
CLARIFICATION: During this panel, Betty Ann Adam states that Boushie family lawyer Chris Murphy was the only source for the reported information that the car Colten Boushie was shot in had left police custody. In fact, Scott Spencer, the lawyer for accused killer Gerald Stanley, also confirmed to the Globe and Mail that the car had not been secured by the police.
UPDATE (March 26, 2018): This episode has been edited to remove a comment from panelist Betty Ann Adam, who said: “When there’s a comparison made to Rodney King, that is kind of ridiculous, when you consider that 50 people died in those riots that went on for five days, and a billion dollars’ worth of property damage occurred. Thousands of businesses were destroyed. Now, in Canada, Indigenous people don’t do that en masse. As Mylan said, the people here signed treaty, and generally speaking, Indigenous people respond to oppression and racist policy with dignity and forbearance. We have had some fiery orators as leaders, who have spoken truth in fiery language. But it hasn’t led to burning buildings.”
While Adam has since clarified that she meant to reject Pastor Mark Kleiner’s declaration that “Colten Boushie is the Rodney King of Western Canada” because “that comparison invites expectations of violent reprisal, something settler Canadians fear from Indigenous people, but which has no modern basis in fact” — she recognizes that her phrasing could lead listeners to infer that she was “pronouncing a judgement on the response to the Rodney King verdict.…I absolutely did not intend the remarks as a negative comparison with any race.”
