Louis Riel exoneration debate continues

The latest advocacy to clear Riel’s name argues the current government has already set a precedent for such a move. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exonerated Chief Poundmaker at the Poundmaker Cree Nation northwest of the Battlefords in 2019. Chief Poundmaker died in prison after his arrest for felony-treason following the Battle of Cut Knife Hill on May 2, 1885.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lays tobacco on the grave of Chief Poundmaker after fully exonerating him of any wrongdoing during the NorthWest Rebellion of 1885. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Paulette Duguay, president of the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba, wrote to federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller to formally ask the government to declare Riel innocent.

“The death of Louis Riel is the source of deep division in Canadian society and has led to a profound sense of injustice among the Métis people which still echoes today,” Duguay said in a media release issued on behalf of a coalition of Métis leaders.

Pardons or exonerations are not about justice but political expediency_{– Jean Teillet, great-grandniece of Louis Riel.}

That coalition includes the president of the British Columbia Métis Federation, Keith Henry, who describes Riel as an iconic leader.

“He was the most remarkable person in Métis history, fighting for basic human rights not only for the Métis but for all First Nations and other Canadians,” Henry said in the media release.

Among others calling for Riel’s exoneration is Montreal City Councillor Marvin Rotrand, who originally raised the matter in 2017 which garnered support from then Mayor Denis Coderre. As an MP in 1996, Coderre proposed Bill C-417, which called for the exoneration, but it failed to obtain unanimous consent.

“There have been numerous private members bills over the years… all failed. What is needed is a bill sponsored by the government,” Rotrand said, adding the exoneration of Chief Poundmaker by Prime Minister Trudeau in May 2019 “could serve as a model by which to exonerate and overturn the long-standing injustices committed against Riel.”

Exoneration rejected

However, the push for exoneration is being firmly dismissed by other Métis, including Jean Teillet, Riel’s great-grandniece and a Vancouver-based lawyer and treaty negotiator.

“It does nothing good. I don’t want to whitewash history, and I don’t think it accomplishes anything,” she told paNOW. “It doesn’t clear his name. Pardons or exonerations are not about justice but political expediency.”

Jean Teillet specializes in Indigenous law. (website/Pape Salter Teillet LLP)

Teillet, who wrote the book The North-West Is Our Mother, a story of the Métis people, argues Riel was hanged under this nation’s first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald “to appease the Orange Lodge white supremacists in Ontario who were clamouring for his head” and an exoneration now from Canada’s government would also be for politically expedient reasons.

She adds the movement to pardon her ancestor has come in waves out of Quebec since the late 1800s and is driven by separatist aspirations there.

“The early drafts of many government bills that have come from Parti Quebecois leaders or MPs are always driven from Quebec… and those early drafts don’t even talk about Riel being a Métis leader at all. For them it’s only about the French language stuff,” Teillet said.

Strong French connection

Dr. Allyson Stevenson is the Gabriel Dumont Institute chair in Métis Studies at the University of Saskatchewan and an assistant professor in Indigenous studies. She notes while Riel’s image has shifted over the generations – even becoming a symbol of Western separation for some – he has always had an important connection to Quebec: as a Catholic, French speaker and someone who represented Quebec in Western Canada.

In terms of what happened to the Métis people after 1885…I think that’s something we still haven’t reckoned with in Canada _{– GDI chair in Metis studies Dr.Allyson Stevenson}

“His hanging – his murder- has always been perceived as a grave injustice in French Canada. So, whereas as Métis people, Louis Riel has been our leader and led us through a number of different engagements with the Canadian government, there is this other connection with Quebec as well and something that is very real,” Stevenson said.

Riel’s leadership in the Prairies inspired the creation of the province of Manitoba and he is perpetually honoured there on the Louis Riel Day public holiday.

Asked if she thought the time was now right for the exoneration of Riel given the focus on reconciliation from the Trudeau government, Stevenson said the time was right for Canadians to ask what reconciliation specifically means to Métis people.

Questions and conversation needed

“Whether that’s the exoneration of Louis Riel or something different, is a conversation many of us are ready to have.

“In terms of what happened to the Métis people after 1885, and after [Gabriel] Dumont was exiled, and many communities were burned and people were pushed out, I think that’s something we still haven’t reckoned with in Canada,” she said.

Whatever the conversation about reconciliation may look like, there are some who are not willing to contemplate the notion of exoneration for the Métis Nation’s most prominent figure.

Manitoba Métis Federation President, David Chartrand, told The Brandon Sun newspaper they have always been against a pardon because it would imply Riel had committed a crime.

“The only thing a pardon and exoneration will end up doing is actually exonerate and pardon Canada,” he said.

It remains to be determined what current and future generations of Métis and all Canadians may want to see regarding reconciliation with the Government of Canada but Riel’s great-grandniece cites Métis lawyer Paul Chartrand when she describes the infamous execution 135 years ago as ‘a stain on the honour of Canada, and I say let the stain remain.’

“It should not be rubbed out,” she said. “Canada has a blemished history, and we shouldn’t try and make it so that it isn’t. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to fix things now, but this exoneration or pardon for Riel, that won’t fix anything.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by Glenn Hicks

Louis Riel exoneration debate continues

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