Louis Riel Needs No Pardon
By: Clément Chartier
President - Métis National Council
Monday, May 03, 2004
Clément Chartier President - Métis National Council.
Two years after Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald, the Prime Minister, signed a deal with the Hudson’s Bay Company, which owned vast tracts of land in Western Canada. For 300,000 pounds, Canada bought several million acres of land from the firm. There was no provision made for the roughly 10,000 people living on the lands, mostly Métis.
In response to this, Riel asserted Métis rights in 1869 by establishing a provisional government at the main settlement in the lands bought from the Hudson’s Bay Company, Red River.
Canada’s government began negotiating with Riel, and the result saw the Red River colony become the province of Manitoba in 1870. The Manitoba Act, 1870, creating the province, also entrenched the basic rights and promises to the Métis people made by the Canadian government.
Over the next several years, however, the Métis people were subjected to repressive actions throughout their homeland in a deliberate attempt to crush the heart and soul of the Métis Nation. Central to this was a land-rights system so corrupt and fraudulent that, more than a century later, it is still the subject of criticism by modern judges. The government had promised to set aside a large reserve for the Métis, but much of the land was gobbled up by migrants from Ontario.
Historical photo of Louis Riel.
As many historians accurately note, Riel led the resistance in 1884-85, and blood was shed on both sides. Having been apprehended and tried in court, he was convicted of high treason. On Nov. 16, 1885, Riel was executed.
What history does not adequately portray is the political manipulation that lay behind the trial: Canada’s government ensured the proceedings would take place in Regina, where it was guaranteed six English Protestant jurors and a part-time magistrate (who was also a political advisor to the government) -- as opposed to Winnipeg, where there would be a regular jury of 12 that most likely would have included some Métis or Frenchmen, presided over by a qualified Queen’s Bench judge.
The Métis Nation does not seek to rewrite history: This violent period in our relationship with Canada must never be sanitized. However, this does not mean that the good men and women of modern day Canada should not take corrective action by respecting our rights. Those rights, including a land base and self-determination, must finally be recognized and reconciled within the Canadian federation. This is what Riel and the other Métis patriots fought and died for. This is what our leaders and people since 1885 have been struggling for.
At this time, Prime Minister Martin’s government should not focus on pardoning or exonerating Riel, or vacating his conviction. That type of gesture will not address the ultimate sacrifice he made. That will not remove the dark cloud hanging over Canada’s head. That will not placate the modern citizens of the Métis Nation or lessen our resolve to achieve our rightful place within a Canada based on our fundamental rights and freedoms as a people.
Instead, Canada must continue to work with the people of the Métis Nation, as represented by the Métis National Council and the Métis Nation’s governments from Ontario westward, in order to create the "new beginning" Prime Minister Martin proclaimed at the recent Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable held in Ottawa.
Negotiations to address the historic injustices perpetrated on our people, which endure to this day, must be initiated immediately. This negotiation process should be guided by a Métis Nation Framework Agreement, as currently proposed by the Métis National Council.
Until such substantive action has been taken, symbolic gestures such as those being debated are of little use. |
