UVic’s Indigenous Law Students’ Association is holding a march outside the Faculty of Law building to raise awareness about systemic discrimination in the Canadian justice system. Photo courtesy Facebook/Sarah Robinson.
University of Victoria students upset with what they call “institutional discrimination” are rallying at 11 a.m. on Ring Road.
The “Justice, Or Just Us?” student walkout, led by the Indigenous Law Students’ Association, will begin in front of the Faculty of Law building and return to the Fraser Building at noon.
The group’s public Facebook page hosted by student Sarah Robinson says, “Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island are reeling from the recent acquittals of Gerald Stanley and Raymond Cormier.”
Stanley was acquitted in February of murdering 22-year-old Colten Boushie in August 2016 on Stanley’s Saskatchewan farm.
On Feb. 22, a jury in Manitoba found Cormier not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2014 death of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine.
“The Canadian “justice” system leaves “just us” behind — to bury our children in vain, to bear the burden of institutional discrimination, and to count our missing and murdered women and girls, like Tina Fontaine,” said Robinson on Facebook Monday.
Similar marches are taking place at other Canadian campuses, including McGill, Concordia, and the Universities of Toronto, Alberta and Windsor.
Andy Neal
