[Cecil Terwilliger]

To me the big deal here isn’t whether the farmer got jail time. His life is gonna be real ####tty with it without jail time. He may have deserved some time in jail but the verdict doesn’t seem like a major miscarriage of justice. His crime didn’t seem malicious. It was a heat of the moment action when he was outnumbered by drunk criminals. That being said it does sound like his reaction was excessive.

However I don’t like how this is being framed as a case of racial prejudice motivating the farmers actions. If the RCMP, the jury, the courts etc aren’t fair for the native kid, that’s a tragedy, but it isn’t the farmers fault. Even if he should have done time, he shouldn’t be the focus of the hatred spewing in the media and online for going free. That’s what makes an already tragic situation worse. Framing this as a racist farmer who got away with murder because of a crooked justice system only adds fuel to the fire when we should be looking to improve the situation, not inflame it.

Edit: just to add here, in my earlier post in this thread I said there was no doubt who was at fault. I think that needs clarification because it may seem as though I’m implying the native guy deserved it. I meant more that the native guy wasn’t just an innocent victim. It doesn’t absolve the farmer if he committed a crime but I was under the impression from the news and social media that the farmer murdered and innocent native kid. Not that he shot a criminal who was robbing him. It doesn’t make the farmer innocent but it does change the way I look at the situation.