A watchdog’s report into how Mounties handled the high-profile shooting death of a young Indigenous man in Saskatchewan has found officers discriminated against his mother.
The finding is detailed in a report by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, which reviewed the investigation into the death of Colten Boushie.
The 22-year-old Cree man from Red Pheasant First Nation was shot and killed in August 2016, while sitting in an SUV which had been driven onto the farm of Gerald Stanley near Biggar, Sask.
A jury acquitted Stanley of second-degree murder, after he testified to having fired warning shots and that his gun “just went off.”
The commission found that the way officers treated Boushie’s mother when they notified her of his death amounted to discrimination based on race.
The report detailed how one officer questioned Debbie Baptiste about whether she had been drinking and someone also told her to “get it together.”
