To the editor:
I can’t believe you would post such an obvious politically and racially biased cartoon (Page A6, Capital News, Feb. 14)
According to this cartoon it’s the white judges that are scoring zero’s for the Indigenous person because she/he is Indigenous. This cartoon insinuates whites are at the root of all the Indigenous problems. It’s painfully obvious that the cartoonist is referring to the recent outcome of the Saskatchewan court case. Apparently only Indigenous persons can hear the evidence and come to a just decision.
Do the natives realize just how racially biased they sound? By their actions and comments they indicate they would have gone into the trial already having decided the outcome of guilty. Then they wonder why all the visible Indigenous persons were challenged. When selecting a jury the Crown and the defence lawyer only know the person by a number. They have no background information on the people from the perspective jury pool.
Each potential juror is given a number. The selection is similar to bingo, numbers are drawn and the potential juror steps up. Each side then has x number of uncontested challenges.We don’t know the make up of the jury, perhaps there were some Indigenous person(s) on the jury, they just weren’t visible.
Had the roles been reversed, and an Indigenous person had killed a white person, and there was a movement for justice for the white person killed, there would not have been an audience with the Prime Minister and Justice Minister. The news would have been reporting on the justification for the shooting by the Indigenous person of the racist white people.
It’s funny racial minorities can wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts, Native Lives Matter or Idle No More, and this is acceptable. However, should a white person wear a T Shirt that says White Lives Matter then suddenly they are a racist.
Duane Long, Kelowna
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