Justice on Trial

When Brayden Bushby was charged with the death of Barbara Kentner, Indigenous communities’ faith in Canada’s legal system would once more be put to the test

- EVA HOLLAND

ON NOVEMBER 2, 2020, Brayden Bushby walked into a makeshift courthouse wearing a dark suit and a matching dark mask. He was heavyset, broad in shoulders and chest, but shorter than either of his lawyers, who bracketed him as they passed the media’s cameras.

It was the first day of his trial. There had been months of delays, ranging from routine legal considerations to the surreal: a pandemic and then an electrical fire that shut down the Thunder Bay courthouse. Now, finally, in a repurposed hotel ballroom divided by sheets of Plexiglas, Bushby’s case was called to order. The traditional phrases announcing the opening of a court of law (“Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!”) sat strangely alongside justice Helen Pierce’s apologies for any glitches in the technology zooming the trial to screens across the country. After the preliminaries, Bushby stepped out of his box to stand behind the defence table with his lawyers. A court official read out the two counts against him, to which Bushby was asked to plead guilty or not guilty. To the charge of manslaughter against an Anishinaabe woman named Barbara Kentner, Bushby responded, in a clear voice, “Not guilty.” His response was recorded, and then the clerk read out the second charge: aggravated assault against Kentner. “Guilty,” Bushby said.

“You have pleaded not guilty to count one and guilty to count two. Is this correct?”

Bushby agreed.

“Are you ready to proceed with your trial?”

“Yes,” he said.