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Oct 22, 2019 · Hero, heretic, nation builder. Shortly after the 110th commemoration of Louis Riel’s execution, I was asked to emcee the official unveiling of a controversial statue of the Métis leader on Nov. 30, 1995, on the campus of what is now the Université de Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg. Sculptor Marcien Lemay’s naked, bound, contorted and confined ...
- Darren O'toole
Feb 18, 2019 · Quick! What's the first thought that comes to mind when you see the name Louis Riel? Hero. Traitor. All of the above. It's complicated. One hundred and fifty years ago this year, Louis Riel took...
Riel was seen as a heroic victim by French Canadians; his execution had a lasting negative impact on Canada, polarizing the new nation along ethno-religious lines. The Métis were marginalized in the Prairie provinces by the increasingly English-dominated majority.
- Early Life
- Riel at Red River
- The Métis National Committee
- The Intervening Years: Quebec to Montana
- The Provisional Government of Saskatchewan
- Trial and Execution
- Legacy and Significance
- Historiography and The Issue of Madness
Riel was born in 1844 in Saint-Boniface, in the Red River Settlement. His father, Louis Riel, Sr. — a businessman and political leader in the Métis community — organized a large Métis resistance to the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) fur-trading monopoly at the trial of Pierre-Guillaume Sayer in 1849. Riel’s political legacy likely influenced his son, w...
In March 1869, the HBC agreed to sell Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory to the Dominion of Canada. Anticipating the transfer of these lands, the federal government appointed William McDougall as lieutenant-governor of the new territory and sent survey crews to Red River that August to assess and re-stake the lands. Concerned that an inf...
The Métis National Committee was consolidated as a provisional government in early December 1869. With Riel at its helm, it issued a "Declaration of the People of Rupert's Land and the North-West," which rejected Canada’s authority to govern the Northwest and proposed a negotiated settlement between Canada and the new provisional government. In res...
In Ontario, Riel was widely denounced as Thomas Scott's "murderer" and a reward of $5,000 was offered for his arrest. In Quebec, he was regarded as a hero, a defender of the Roman Catholic faith and French culture in Manitoba. Anxious to avoid a political confrontation with the two principal provinces of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald tried to persu...
By 1885, the North-West Mounted Police had been established, and a railway to the West almost completed, so the impetus for the Canadian government to negotiate with Métis as it had in 1870 was no longer present. Tired of waiting on Canadian action, the BatocheMétis, at a meeting on 5 March 1885, proposed to take up arms in order to compel Canada t...
On 6 July 1885, a formal charge of treason was laid against Riel. On 20 July, his trial began in Regina. Against Riel’s wishes, his counsel defended Riel on the grounds of insanity, pointing to the time he spent in asylums in the late 1870s. Riel, however, understood that by casting him as insane, his lawyers would discredit his people’s legitimate...
Politically and philosophically, Riel's execution has had a lasting effect on Canadian history. Riel’s execution made him the martyr of the Métis people. In Central Canada, the political fallout from Riel’s hanging enlivened French Canadian nationalism, propelling Honoré Mercier, who came to power in Quebec in 1886 on a platform that played to the ...
The story of Riel has endured dramatic shifts since the 1960s. While Riel’s legacy has always been controversial — loved by some, hated by others — his status as a rebel, highlighted by many non-Métis historians and political scientists, has been largely replaced by the recognition that Riel was a visionary whose principles resonate with many Métis...
Apr 2, 2014 · Louis Riel was the leader of the Métis in western Canada who led his people in revolt against Canadian sovereignty and helped found the province of Manitoba.
Feb 21, 2022 · Ultimately, Louis Riel wasn’t just a hero or a traitor, he was both. Riel was a complex and mysterious man who wore many hats throughout his lifetime. He was a schoolteacher, the...
Jun 7, 2022 · Louis Riel was seen as a rebel by many non-Métis people, but as a hero by the Métis. More people now consider Riel to be a hero. Indigenous Peoples in Canada
