Louis Riel Essay - a Hero or a Rebel?

G1A1 Bini Nam

Canadian History

Mr. Stewart

December 9th, 2015

Louis Riel, a Hero of the Century

        “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

--Joseph Campbell

        The definition of an outstanding hero of the Métis, Louis Riel, largely contributed to conserving the Métis’ rights, and devoted his all to the ambition—the protection of the Métis rights. This hero, who set a wonderfully great model throughout the history and inspired countless people to stand up for what they believe, was absolutely innocent for a variety of reasons that have full proof to prove his innocence.

        To begin with, the crimes that Louis Riel convicted of were absolutely controversial, refutable, and unsubstantiated.

In fact, he should not be guilty of treason since he was initially willing to join Canada, however, only if the Canadian Government guaranteed the rights of the Métis. According to the Manitoba Act signed in June, 1870, the British  were responsible for ensuring everyone in the Red River Settlement retaining the access to the land that they had already inhabited for hundreds years. Specifically, 1,400,000 acres of the land along the river was promised to be distributed to the Métis. However, the land of superb quality along the river was distributed to the immigrants from Ontario—the white people, which meant the Métis had no rights to choose their own lots. In addition, the first surveying had been extremely controversial since the English surveyors unfairly divided the land into squares that had boundaries and assigned the lands that have less water resources to Métis, making the Métis extremely raged because they earned their food and money mainly by agriculture. More importantly, when the Métis sent several petitions for the additional surveying, the English refused to meet their requirements and even wanted to provoke rebellion in order to complete the railway construction. At that time, John. A. McDonald was eager to build a railway in the western Canada, but he did not get any subsidies from the government. Ironically, he found that if Riel’s army began the rebellion, the British would over-heartedly support the construction for the reason that the government would need to send the Canadian soldiers to the western side. By this action, the English did not meet the Metis’ requirements that sh-ould be compensated for joining the Canadian government. Therefore, due to English actions and violation on the terms of the Manitoba Act, this document cannot be valid. Consequently, the Métis, in fact, did not join the Canadian government.

Moreover, he never attempted to rebel against Queen Victoria, instead, it was the English who first started to attack. When Riel was establishing the provisional government, he emphasized that the government always stayed loyal with the Queen’s will.  However, the royal proclamation from the “Queen Victoria” that proposed the British should organize an army to suppress the rebelling force of Métis was a forgery made by John. A. Macdonald. Hence, it was Macdonald went against to the will of the Queen and the document was not counted again, proving the innocence of Louis Riel. Also, the ones that truly guilty were the English. Two examples above indicate that Louis Riel’s protest against the Canadian government cannot be considered as treason.

        Further, the execution of Thomas Scott was under the law. This action can never be stated as an arbitrary decision or a murder, but a result of strict consideration. When the son of John Sutherland was shot by a gun accidently, Thomas Scott killed him with hammer in a brutal way just because he disliked the Metis. In the jail, he kept yelling discriminative and abusive words against the Métis that terribly affected the emotion of surrounding people. Also, before Riel made the final decision, he talked to Thomas Scott for several times and even tried to stop him in a peaceful manner. However, Thomas Scott went insane and got very violent and abusive while in prison. Louis Riel, as a leader of the Métis, had an obligation to maintain the unity and prevent chaos among his people. In addition, the execution of Thomas Scott was passed by vote in which the suffrage was given to both the French and English people. Regarding to the situation and the negatively influential behavior of Thomas Scott, the decision of execution was absolutely reasonable and legal.