The Six Nations elected council is responding to the Peter Khill verdict tonight.
Everyone CHCH spoke to who had been following the case was deeply disappointed in the outcome. As sad and angry as they were, the majority of people said they weren’t surprised at all. In fact, they expected this verdict.
“I feel like a victim today, not because I know Jonathan, but all indigenous people are victims. We deserve to be looked at and thought of in the way this issue was handled.”
Terry Lynn Brant is a Seedkeeper on Six Nations.
She knew Jonathan Styre as a young boy. He played with her children.
“I don’t condone what he did, but I do condone that he shouldn’t have died for that. There was a lot of sadness there for that, and another loss of a young man in this community.”
Nobody from the Six Nations council would go on camera today, but they issued a statement expressing their shock and disappointment in the not guilty verdict.
Elected Chief Eva Hill said: “How can indigenous people have faith in the relationship with Canada when the justice system fails to hold anyone accountable for the taking of a life?”
Others in the community felt the verdict means it’s “open season on indigenous people.”
Chief Stacey Laforme of the Mississaugas of the New Credit agrees.
“I don’t like the idea that we have to talk to our kids and tell them to be extra careful in this world and on guard, because we’re not sure the justice system serves us.”
Brant says Jonathan Styre’s race was definitely a factor in the verdict.
“If Jonathan was a young white man, that man would never have gotten off. He would have been found guilty.”
The Six Nations elected council also calls on the ministry of the attorney general to appeal this verdict. They say the trial proceeded with a number of questionable moments, including some evidence that the judge excluded.
Six Nations Elected council released a statement saying “Six Nations Elected Council joins other Indigenous voices expressing shock and disappointment at the “not guilty” verdict by the jury in the trial of Peter Khill charged with second degree murder of Six Nations father of two, Jonathan Styres. How can Indigenous people have faith in the relationship with Canada when the justice system fails to hold anyone accountable for the taking of a life?”
Read the full statement:
