0:02 Being there with all these strong either with my mom beside me with all these other strong Indigenous women beside me and then just hearing that song you know. In our culture the drum is supposed to represent the heartbeat so just seeing all those people and you know the round and singing up all of Nathan Phillips Square and those songs you know, it was just such a beautiful thing. 0:27 Madison Arscott is only 16 years old, but our age didn't stop her from organizing the Justice for Tina Fontaine rally on March third at Nathan Phillips Square. She wanted justice and she wanted it now. 0:40 It was surreal. Honestly, I just thinking like those all those thousands of people got together and like I was the key person behind it, like, so many people helped me a lot. But like, I I started that and like, seeing it go from one person to looking into a crowd full of people I so far I couldn't see. It was just amazing. You know, like it really gave me hope for the future. People from all different backgrounds, all different levels of experience. I don't know if it was because of a good cause or because I'm so young, maybe both who knows. People were just so willing and eager to help me out. And there was a lot of passion that got put into it from both the Indigenous community and the non-Indigenous community and it was really amazing to see that. 1:25 Indigenous and non-Indigenous people rallied against the judicial system that acquitted Raymond Cormier in the murder of Tina Fontaine. 1:32 I couldn't stop crying for hours. I was scared. I was terrified. I was angry, first and foremost. I don't know it's just unexplainable feeling. 1:41 Tina Fontaine's body was found in the Red River in Winnipeg back in 2014. She was wrapped in a duvet cover and weighed down by rocks. She was 15 years old. A few weeks before the Fontaine verdict, Gerald Stanley was found not guilty in the murder of Colton Bushie defense found there was no evidence that Stanley intentionally killed Boushie. An all white jury claimed it to be a freak accident. 2:11 On August 9, 2016, a 22 year old indigenous man was shot and killed on a farm in rural Saskatchewan. 2:17 By a 12 person jury last month in the shooting death of Boushie, a 22 year old from the Red Pheasant First Nation. 2:23 Found the man accused of killing 15 year old Tina Fontaine not guilty of second degree murder. 2:30 But what about reconciliation? With the judicial system that has failed Indigenous people time and time again, is there still hope for reconciliation in Canada? Well, according to Max FineDay, the executive director of the Canadian Roots Exchange a program which brings Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together to rebuild that reconciliation, says that he still has hope. 2:52 I didn't believe that there'd be no reason to keep going. I believe that Canadians are beginning to understand the injustices that exist in this country. That maybe we aren't, you know that the the good country, you know, that we think we like to think that we are. That we were taught in schools that we are this great defender of human rights on the international stage. I think Canadians are starting to realize that we have Third World conditions. 3:18 But to FineDay the trials were more than just trials, they were a reflection on his own life with reconciliation and what it meant to him. 3:25 And when I when I when I heard the verdict, I was extraordinarily disappointed. Not only in the justice system, but also in myself. I had allowed myself to think that that justice could be served, but the facts weren't any clearer. That it was clear to me that this this farmer, Mr. Stanley, had ended Mr. Bouchie's his life. Back at home in Saskatchewan, and I learned of the verdict. I felt foolish that I believe that these these institutions, which have not been serving Indigenous people for 150 years, they continue not to serve Indigenous people today. They continue to have deep seated racism and prejudice, and allow injustice to continue to occur against my people. And I felt a little foolish that I thought it can be it can be any different. 4:14 Reconciliation is a big topic in Canada, yet our judicial systems are oppressive. That's what Shin Imai a professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School says. 4:23 What shocked me was sort of the process and especially the jury process in the Colton Bouchie case where basically, you know, the system is set up so you can have an all white jury and that's just wrong. And and our system needs to be legitimate for everybody, because otherwise it just becomes a system of oppression. And so that's that's the problem with a system that allows a white defendant to get an all white jury. An elder says, well, if it takes takes you five days to walk into your trap line, how many days does it take to walk out? Takes you five days to walk out. And so for looking at, you know, 100 200 years of oppression, you can't expect that you're going to walk out of it, you know, in one year, or you're going to do one thing, or you're going to have one policy. 5:23 And they they told me the same thing ahkameyimok in Cree. It means to persevere. It means to keep going. 5:31 What is reconciliation? Like what is true reconciliation? What does that look like? Who knows? You know, we all have to answer that within ourselves. You know, it starts with us starts with each and every one of us. 5:44 The song is a strong women song, which brings strength to all women. It was sung at the justice for Tina Fontaine rally from the Dish with One Spoon Territory and for RSJ radio, I'm Juliana Kedzior Kaminski.