Louis Riel was born in the Red River Valley on October 22,
1844. He was educated in Montreal and thought to become a priest, then a
lawyer, but decided against either career and by 1868, he had returned to the
Red River Valley. In 1869 and 1870 he headed a provisional government, which
would eventually negotiate the Manitoba Act with the Canadian federal
government. The Act established Manitoba as a province and provided some
protection for French language rights. It is vital to understand that at this
point in Canadian history, the Métis and the Native Peoples were increasingly
viewed as second-class citizens by those in Ottawa, and efforts were in place
to assimilate not only the Métis and Indians into Anglo-Canadian culture, but
the French in Québec as well. The idea of British superiority at this time had
roots in the growing British Empire and in European ideals of race and class.
The Métis had been in the Red River Valley since the early
days of the Canadian fur trade. They did not take kindly to being dismissed by
the federal government. Louis Riel, well-educated and ambitious, was very
conscious of his heritage and of the increasing plight of his people.
What most see as the start of the rebellion in Manitoba was
the arrival of surveyors from Ottawa in the Red River Valley in 1868. Surveying
was being carried out in the Ontario style of survey, in square lots, instead
of the system of long, narrow lots with river frontage which had originated in
Québec and was used by the Métis. The new system divided up properties that had
been in existence for generations. More to the point, surveying began before
the land had been officially transferred from the Hudson's Bay Company to
Ottawa. On October 11, 1869, proclaiming that the Canadian government had no
right to survey the land, sixteen Métis led by Louis Riel stopped a crew of
surveyors on the property of André Nault and chased them away. This the first
act of resistance to the transfer of the Settlement to Canada and it
established Louis Riel as the champion of the Métis.
In 1870, Riel was forced into exile over the execution of
Thomas Scott, a captured prisoner of a Canadian expedition sent to wrest
control away from the Métis. There was pressure on Riel to prevent the
execution, but he refused and Scott was executed by firing squad on March 4,
1870.
Riel was the spiritual and political leader of the
short-lived 1885 Red River Rebellion. Riel was increasingly influenced by his
belief that he was 'chosen' to lead the Métis people. On May 15, shortly after
the fall of Batoche, Riel surrendered to Canadian forces and was taken to
Regina to stand trial for treason against Canada
His defence lawyers attempted to have him declared not
guilty by reason of insanity, but to no avail. On August 1, 1885, a jury of six
English-speaking Protestants found Riel guilty of treason. Judge Hugh
Richardson sentenced him to death. Attempted appeals were dismissed and a
re-examination of Riel's mental state by government appointed doctors
found him sane. He was hanged in Regina on November 16, 1885. His execution was
widely opposed in Québec.
When Riel had attempted to found a new province that would
represent in Parliament the Métis, First Nations, and early (predominantly
French and Scottish) European settlers, most French-Canadians in Québec
believed it was the natural order of a gradual extension of what was then a
bilingual Canada. The execution of Riel in November 1885 crushed not only the
aspirations of the European settlers seeking provincial status, and those Métis
seeking recognition of their rights, but was seen in Québec as an utter
rejection of the aspirations to continue the bilingual and bicultural character
of the Western territories, and therefore of Canada as whole. Had Riel been
able to bring a second bilingual province into Confederation, which would have
fully represented the aspirations of both Francophones and First Nations as
well as the growing European population, the concept of Francophones within
Canada would have taken a decidedly different turn.
At the time, Riel was called a rebel leader by the English
in Upper Canada. To the Métis, he was the leader of a rebellion for survival
and recognition within a developing country. Was he a martyr? A hero? A
criminal? As political winds change in Canada, and this point in history is
seen though the filter of time, Riel is now viewed by most as the founder of
the province of Manitoba and the defender of the rights of the Métis and French
Canadians. Some even call him one of the founding fathers of Confederation.