Peter Goldring's Louis Riel pamphlet

8/14/2019 Peter Goldring's Louis Riel pamphlet

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ISSUE 91A LOUIS RIEL DECEMBER 2009

The Truth About Louis Riel

While most Canadiansare generally aware of

Louis Riel and the mur-der of Thomas Scott,few who know, or, evenif aware, talk about thetragic loss of 80 Cana-dian lives during Riel‟sdisagreements with theCanadian governmentsof 1869 and 1885. Rieltwice used violent in-surrection and death

while challenging Brit-ish and Canadian au-thority and Canadianunity. Accordingly,Louis Riel was chargedwith high treason, tried,convicted and thenhung for his crimes thatresulted in the deathsof some 80 persons.

Criminals of the day were hung for a lot lessthan being accountable for the deaths of 80people. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canada's LoyalOpposition Party leader at the time, was op-posed to Riel's execution only on the basisthat he considered the sentence to be too se-vere. He did not find fault with the conviction.The crime was regarded with the utmostgravity by all politicians of the day. Sir John A

Macdonald, Canada'sPrime Minister, refusedto interfere with thecourt imposed death

sentence, which wasthen duly carried out.

The facts of Riel's lead-ership role in armed in-surrection are not in dis-pute. The fact that thisarmed insurrection re-sulted in many deaths isalso not in dispute. Rielclearly chose to lead; he

also clearly chose to in-cite uprisings thatcaused many to die. Asthe leader of these up-risings, Riel is responsi-ble for each and everydeath occurring as aconsequence of his ac-tions. To now question

There are those today who want to change

the historical record regarding 19th centuryMetis leader Louis Riel. Peter Goldring,Member of Parliament for Edmonton Eastsays that such historical revisionism iswrong and sets the record straight on Rieland his crimes.

Louis Riel was charged with high treason, con-victed and hanged for his crimes that resultedin the deaths of some 80 people. Those whowant to exonerate him for his crimes more

than 100 years later are ignoring the severityof his crimes.



One typical example of selective memorywas a Canadian Lawyer magazine article onRiel's trial, presumed to have been written bya discerning member of Canada's legal pro-fession. In the article there was absolutely no

mention of anyonehaving died, although80 people (some sayup to 110) were deadas a result of Riel'sleadership; 80 sepa-rate Canadian familytragedies commencedand not even a foot-note in the thoughtprocess of the maga-zine article. Givensuch a selective view,it is understandablethat one finds a full-page editorial in the

same issue of themagazine, calling for a public apology for Riel's "wrongful con-viction". A similarlyselective nature to the

presentation of facts appears to be evidentby the CBC for its “Riel retrial”. Métis organi-zations weren‟t even consulted during theplanning for this production. The productionhas been variously described as “ill concei-

ved” and “socially, morally and politically irre-deemable”.

To "unhang" Riel today is illogical for thosewho remember the true history of Riel's revo-lutionary role and who also respect the au-thority of historical jury decisions. To posthu-mously "pardon" Riel would amount to a ret-roactive miscarriage of justice. To apologise

ISSUE 91A LOUIS RIEL PAGE 2 DECEMBER 2009

the integrity of the jurists of over 100 years iswrong. Riel had the best and brightest law-yers of the day and still, the jury did not ac-quit. Nearly 125 years later, there are somewho wish to "time travel" back in history, toreassess eventswith the "refinedlegal enlighten-ment" of today.The CBC initiativesome years agoto “retry” Riel isbut one in a seriesor regrettablesteps to refuse toacknowledge thefacts our history.

Revisionist "timetravel” ignores the

reality of humansuffering. Historyis there to belearned, not to berevised or reinter-preted today bypersons who do not like the outcomes of over a century ago. “Time travelling” back tothe Riel era and erasing this judgement fromour history books as if it were wrong, wouldin itself be wrong. How can we possibly

know what was in the minds of people 100years ago, to re-judge them today, years af-ter the fact. How can we obtain a true ap-preciation for those issues, without thesweat of fear and the odour of death thatthose events caused across the West in thatera?

A statue of Louis Riel is on display outside theManitoba Legislature. Louis Riel Day, held the third

Monday in February, is a statutory holiday inManitoba.



to Riel's memory and to anoint Riel as a"Father of Confederation" would be an insultto the memories of those fallen Canadiansoldiers, Canada‟s first recognized war veter-ans, and their descendants. These are theproud Canadian soldiers who fought anddied defending Canada against armed insur-gents, led by Riel. Riel didn‟t „Father‟ Con-federation; he foughtthose who did. Tounhang Louis Rieland to mount astatue to him on Par-liament Hill wouldelevate anarchy andcivil disobedience tothat of democraticstatesmanship.

Such confusionseems to continue,

year after year. In2000, preservationof the Riel “myth”was entrusted tonone other than our Governor General of that time, who used her Office in a way that appeared to prejudge aparliamentary outcome. Speaking with rev-erent atonement at the foot of a memorialhonouring Canadian soldiers, Canada‟s firstwar veterans, who sacrificed their lives so

that the Northwest Rebellion could be putdown and Louis Riel be brought to justice,and flanked by an RCMP honour guardwearing Métis sashes, our Governor Generalassumed the role of Riel apologist. Readilyforgotten was the fact that those Canadiansoldiers were ordered by the Government of Canada to fight Riel and to bring him to jus-tice. At the time, the Government Bill direct-

ing military action against Louis Riel waspassed in Parliament and then receivedRoyal Assent by the Queen and her repre-sentative in Canada—the Governor Gen-eral.

So many people today appear to know littleof and care less for the sacrifice of those

very first Canadianwar veterans whofought against Rieland saved our country from disin-tegration, so longago.

Some facts thatlikely won‟t comeout in the “Riel re-trial”, since of course they are not

“relevant” are: thewar veteran sol-diers who foughtRiel were awardedmedals by a thank-

ful government for their service in defendingCanada. The first war medal ever issued byCanada to its war veterans was ribboned ina striped pattern of "red-white-red"--the col-ours of Canada's flag of today--and wasgarlanded with maple leaves around the

word "Canada". The medal's ribbon bore aclasp for either the Red River Campaign or the Fenian Raids. The second war medalissued by Canada was specifically for ser-vice during the Northwest Rebellion. Bothmedals awarded demonstrate Canada'sgratitude for the sacrifices of those whoserved their country to bring Riel's rebellionsto an end and him to justice.

Louis Riel with members of his 1869-70 provisionalgovernment in Red River, Manitoba. It was the first

time he had set up a government in defiance of authorities.




The events of the past cannot be retroac-tively altered by anyone. Why should it beany different for apologists for Louis Riel?It‟s a sad state of Canadian historical affairswhen so many historically ill-informed per-

sons, and sometimes well-informed personswho should know better, busy themselvesgiving latter day praise to Riel, naming newhighways after him and running a CBC spe-cial retrial “unhanging program” for LouisRiel, the villain who caused more thaneighty to die, while General Middleton andhis first war veteran Canadian soldiers areinsulted, ignored and marginalized.

In my view, we have sunk to a level compa-rable to that of modern Japan, whereschoolbooks are sterilized to remove their Second World War shame, in the interest of


Name:____________________________

Address:__________________________

City: _____________________________

Postal Code: _______________________

Telephone: ________________________

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Peter GoldringMember of Parliament

Edmonton EastHouse of Commons

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

ISSUE #91A

9111 - 118th Ave. Web Site: 411 Justice Bldg.Edmonton, AB T5B OT9 www.petergoldring.ca Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

(780) 495-3261 Email: (613) 992-3821Fax: 495-5142 [email protected] Fax: 992-6898

This brochure series is intended to highlight special issues that Member of Parliament, Peter Goldring,has been involved in. If you wish to comment, please take a moment to fill out the survey below, writeor call to the address above.

Your Opinion Matters...

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Yes No

Question #1: Do you think history should be re-writtenwithout regard for the facts of the time?

Question #2: Do you think Louis Riel, who led a revoltthat cost well over 80 lives, should have his convictionfor treason overturned?

Comments:____________________________________

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sanitizing history and glorifying Emperor Hi-rohito, the benevolent leader who, with awave of his hand, could have stopped all ag-gression, but did not. Canadians should bemore willing to accept the facts of our history,however difficult and distasteful and to learn

from history, not erase it.

Louis Riel should be honoured and re-spected for those democratic efforts consid-ered to constructively advance the interestsof his local community. However, to sanitizehis rebellious ways that caused so manydeaths of Canadian soldiers and citizens istoo much, too far and too revisionist. Can-ada‟s first war veterans fought and died tokeep Canada united; Louis Riel most cer-tainly did not.

Update: Once more there is an attempt to re-write history. An NDP Member of Parliament has introduced a Pri-vate Members Bill calling for Riel’s treason conviction to be overturned and Riel recognized as a Father of Con-federation.

Documents

Peter Goldring's Louis Riel pamphlet