Social media storm following death of Colten Boushie sparks fear in First Nations youth: FSIN

Racial tensions are continuing to flare over social media since the shooting death of an Indigenous man on a rural Saskatchewan property.

"One of my concerns is the fear taking place amongst the communities right now for the First Nations youth that are here," said Andre Bear, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations youth representative.

"A lot of us are being really scared to travel around. There's so much racial tension and there's so much racism."

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Colten Boushie, 22, was shot and killed earlier this month on a property near Biggar, which is nearly100 kilometres west of Saskatoon.

A man associated with the property, Gerald Stanley, 54, is charged with second-degree murder. He was granted bail last Friday with a number of conditions.

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'DehumanizedFirst Nations youth'

Bear said it's especially tough to see posts made online threatening the lives of First Nations youth.

"Those are kids that they're talking about It's unbelievable how dehumanized First Nations youth are in this province," Bear added.

Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall made aplea on his Facebook page askingpeople to stop posting racist comments.

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"These comments are not only unacceptable, intolerant and a betrayal of the very values and character of Saskatchewan, they are dangerous," Wall wrote in hispost.

"There are laws that protect citizens from what this kind of hate may foment. They will be enforced."

Even some councillors in the provinceweighed in. Controversy arose after ascreen-grab of apost, from a user named Ben Kautz, waswidely circulated.

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"His only mistake was leaving three witnesses," read the poston a Saskatchewan farmers group Facebook page. The group has sincebeen closed.

Kautz, a farmer near the small town of Lampman, southeast ofRegina, is also councillor with the rural municipality of Browning.

Comments 'completely unacceptable'

"The social media some of the comments that have been made are completely unacceptable. We certainly take great exception to that," Jim Reiter, the minister responsible for First Nations in the province, said to reporters on Sunday.

He said the tragedy involving Boushie hasbecome very inflamed.

"What everyone, I think, needs to do is to just let the RCMP and the justice system do their jobs," he said.

According to Bear, there is systemic racism in the province and change needs to happen not only on a provincial and federal level, but it needs to starton an individual scale.

"Thesefarmers and these peopleI believe they have to find it in themselves to fight that indoctrination of dehumanization of First Nations people.They have to find it within themselves to realize that we're human too,that we're equal."