Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Glen Hare says he is outraged that the charges against Brayden Bushby have been reduced to manslaughter and aggravated assault charges from a second-degree murder charge in the killing of a First Nations woman in 2017.
See: Man who threw trailer hitch at Thunder Bay woman now charged with second-degree murder
Bushby was first charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly threw a metal trailer hitch from a moving vehicle that struck Kentner in the abdomen, as she walked with her sister on the night of Jan. 29, 2017 in Thunder Bay.
Kentner died in hospital on July 4. She was 34 years old.
The assailant was heard yelling from the vehicle, “Oh, I got one”, after throwing the hitch at the sisters.
“This represents a failure of the entire justice system, the police investigation, the Crown Attorney, prosecution policy, the courts, and legislative parameters that these individuals and systems follow.," says Hare. "They are not designed with First Nation people in mind and continue to fail our people. Systemic racism is rampant in all of our institutions and systems and these senseless killings and injustices are a reminder of that.
“We weren’t considered real people until 1951, and our women considered even less than that. In many ways, nothing has changed."
Hare contends that the recently announced reduction of charges against the alleged perpetrator in the murder of Kentner in Thunder Bay by an intentional act of violence is yet another frustrating development in this tragic history of the mistreatment of Indigenous women.
