Under heavy security, the preliminary hearing of Gerald Stanley is underway in North Battleford.
Stanley, facing a charge of second degree murder in the August 2016 death of Colten Boushie on a farm in the RM of Glenside, was in provincial court Monday as the prelims got started. The evidence and testimony is covered by a publication ban.
Also on hand were family members for both the accused Stanley and the victim Boushie. A second courtroom was used so that some members of the gallery could follow along on closed-circuit TV.
The preliminary hearing is scheduled for the entire week, until April 7, though it is also possible proceedings could finish up before then.
The Monday proceedings were marked by tight security both inside and outside the court house. Inside, metal detectors were set up at the front entrance and visitors were all screened by security, something not usually seen at provincial court.
The street outside was also closed for the day. RCMP had cordoned off the portion of Railway Avenue from 101st Street up to the 100th Street-11th Avenue intersection. Westbound traffic on Railway Avenue had to make a detour up 101st Street during the day, creating some traffic delays during the noon hour in that area.
Likely due to the heightened security on display, it was a quiet scene outside the court house. That stood in contrast to previous court appearances, which had seen sizable crowds, plenty of placards and chants of "Justice for Colten."
Apart from a few TV cameras and police, that was not the case this time. However, a few people did wave some placards along 11th Avenue during the noon hour, receiving a smattering of honks of horns in support. Those placards included messages such as "Murder is murder" and " Every life matters."
Inside the courtroom, there was some emotion from Boushie's supporters as a couple of family members, including his mother Debbie Baptiste, left the courtroom in tears during the morning session.
"It’s just a very difficult thing to hear in court about the last few minutes of your family’s life. So it's a hard day for everybody," acknowledged Chris Murphy, lawyer for the Boushie family, to reporters during the noon hour Monday.
"The family always wanted the truth to come out in court about what happened on Aug. 9, 2016 in the farmyard. That's all they want. They want to make sure that Mr. Stanley receives a fair trial, but they want to make sure that the public interest in having a fair trial and arriving at the truth is met as well. So, it's kind of two sides of the coin, it's Mr. Stanley's fair trial rights but also the public interest in arriving at the truth. That’s all they want at the end of the day is that a jury can decide what the truth was, what happened on that day."
Murphy also spoke about the increased security at the court house that day.
“The last thing on anybody’s mind in this family is to cause any unrest," Murphy said. "They’re here to just to see what happened to their son and their brother, and so you know, I appreciate the RCMP is doing their job and court security’s doing their job but I mean, I certainly have never seen security like this at a courthouse. I mean, I guess all I can say is that the family members are here in a peaceful way to just engage the process, so I don’t know what the security’s for.”
