[Locke]

Originally Posted by Nyah

I don't really have much to add except it's a sad and unfortunate situation all around. The kid shouldn't have lost his life. The farmer shouldn't have shouldn't have had his & his families life irreparably changed. I'm not going to tout that I did stupid stuff like this as a kid, but neither did I grow up in circumstances that Colten Bushie did. I have no idea what his life was like, or what he was dealing with. I'm not naive to the fact that growing up on a First Nation reserve no doubt has a slew of challenges for kids that I would have never had to deal with. So I don't judge him. I also don't blame Mr. Stanley for his actions either. He thought his family was in danger, and I can't say that me, or my loved ones would have acted any differently. It's tough. We don't know whether he'd faced similar situations in the past either. So I can't judge him.

I think it's absolutely possible and even necessary to have empathy for both parties here. It's easy to assign blame, and I think it's lazy. For me the take-away, is that we really owe our First Nations youth more. We need to make it a priority to help these kids overcome obstacles they may be facing. My sisters friend worked as a counselor for First Nations youth, and it's not easy for them. For many, their whole lives are surrounded by addiction, violence, and a general distrust of those outside the reserve. A lot of them don't stand a chance in the world outside their reserve (and even on it). We have to do better by them.

Evidently not.

If we take away the fact that the kid was a Native does anyone really see this having a significantly different end result?

I find that hes getting off lightly having more to do with the fact that the testimony against him for his part in all of this is pretty flimsy at best all the way to straight-up unreliable.