The recent decision to acquit Gerald Stanley, the man charged with killing Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, has sparked accusations of racism and resulted in a current public outcry surrounding the fact that there were no visibly Indigenous jurors selected at the beginning of the trial.
U of G political science professor, David MacDonald, says this trial highlights the need to remove peremptory challenges, which is a right in jury selection for attorneys to reject a certain number of potential jurors without stating a reason. He says this would be one step towards a larger overhaul of the justice system. MacDonald spoke about some of these issues in a Feb. 14 CTV News story.
An expert on residential schools and Indigenous politics in Canada, MacDonald was involved in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
He is available for media interviews.
Contact
Prof. David MacDonald
College of Social and Applied Human Sciences
dmacdo03@uoguelph.ca
