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Louis Riel: Let Justice Be Done
On receiving the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness this year for Aboriginal Rights Claims and the Making and Remaking of History (McGill-Queen’s), Indigenous land claims expert Arthur J. Ray, noted that Canada has been exceptional among so-called modern nations by according official recognition to its Métis population as a distinct people.
The real and mythological status of Métis leader Louis Riel, the foremost Robin Hood figure in Canadian history, is partly why this is so.
After battles with government troops, Louis Riel was tried for treason in Regina and hanged—but he’s still revered as a folk hero.
Every schoolchild should learn about him; and yet most Canadians know precious little. That’s why David Doyle has spent decades as a public advocate for Riel’s reputation, resulting in Louis Riel: Let Justice Be Done (Ronsdale $24.95).
In July, David Doyle performed in John Coulter’s play The Trial of Louis Riel in Regina, then he went to Batoche, Saskatchewan, to present his own creative monologue “An Inquiry into the Career of Louis Riel.”
Louis Riel requested that an inquiry should occur during his trial for high treason.
A former First Nations school principal and Canadian Plains Research Fellow, David Doyle has answered Louis Riel’s request and provided Riel the opportunity to defend himself in this imagined re-enactment of the trial.
Riel, the main political spokesperson for Canada’s Métis nation in 1885 had no way to defend himself and the cause of his Métis people before a handpicked magistrate and six Anglo-Canadian jurors.
Riel even had to defend himself from his own lawyers whose defence was “not guilty by reason of insanity.”
On August 1, 1885, Louis Riel was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to hang by the neck until dead.
Upon being sentenced, Riel decried his trial and pleaded for an Inquiry into the Career of Louis Riel.
He died waiting and praying for his inquiry so, in Doyle’s book, Riel is allowed to speak in his own defence.
“My new book reveals the immoral and illegal tactics of the Canadian government,” says David Doyle, “and Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel’s heroic struggle to bring democracy and harmony back to our Northwest.”
The Métis in what is now viewed as Manitoba had had their own system of Indigenous government in 1872 before it was crushed by the administration of Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, making way for CPR expansion.
Over the past thirty-plus years, Doyle, secretary of the Friends of Louis Riel Society, has helped to uncover and collect important evidence that has surfaced since Riel’s controversial trial and execution.
Now Doyle is off on a book tour to Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton prior to returning to Regina and Winnipeg in October to mark the 50th anniversary of John Coulter’s play The Trial of Louis Riel.
On Louis Riel Day (February 20, 2018), the Friends of Louis Riel Society will hold a national commemorative calling for exoneration and recognition of Riel as Canada’s Indigenous (Métis) Father of Confederation.
It has taken more than a century since Louis Riel was executed for this nation to begin to widely accept what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated (above).
978-1-55380-496-3
The real and mythological status of Métis leader Louis Riel, the foremost Robin Hood figure in Canadian history, is partly why this is so.
After battles with government troops, Louis Riel was tried for treason in Regina and hanged—but he’s still revered as a folk hero.
Every schoolchild should learn about him; and yet most Canadians know precious little. That’s why David Doyle has spent decades as a public advocate for Riel’s reputation, resulting in Louis Riel: Let Justice Be Done (Ronsdale $24.95).
In July, David Doyle performed in John Coulter’s play The Trial of Louis Riel in Regina, then he went to Batoche, Saskatchewan, to present his own creative monologue “An Inquiry into the Career of Louis Riel.”
Louis Riel requested that an inquiry should occur during his trial for high treason.
A former First Nations school principal and Canadian Plains Research Fellow, David Doyle has answered Louis Riel’s request and provided Riel the opportunity to defend himself in this imagined re-enactment of the trial.
Riel, the main political spokesperson for Canada’s Métis nation in 1885 had no way to defend himself and the cause of his Métis people before a handpicked magistrate and six Anglo-Canadian jurors.
Riel even had to defend himself from his own lawyers whose defence was “not guilty by reason of insanity.”
On August 1, 1885, Louis Riel was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to hang by the neck until dead.
Upon being sentenced, Riel decried his trial and pleaded for an Inquiry into the Career of Louis Riel.
He died waiting and praying for his inquiry so, in Doyle’s book, Riel is allowed to speak in his own defence.
“My new book reveals the immoral and illegal tactics of the Canadian government,” says David Doyle, “and Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel’s heroic struggle to bring democracy and harmony back to our Northwest.”
The Métis in what is now viewed as Manitoba had had their own system of Indigenous government in 1872 before it was crushed by the administration of Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, making way for CPR expansion.
Over the past thirty-plus years, Doyle, secretary of the Friends of Louis Riel Society, has helped to uncover and collect important evidence that has surfaced since Riel’s controversial trial and execution.
Now Doyle is off on a book tour to Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton prior to returning to Regina and Winnipeg in October to mark the 50th anniversary of John Coulter’s play The Trial of Louis Riel.
On Louis Riel Day (February 20, 2018), the Friends of Louis Riel Society will hold a national commemorative calling for exoneration and recognition of Riel as Canada’s Indigenous (Métis) Father of Confederation.
It has taken more than a century since Louis Riel was executed for this nation to begin to widely accept what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated (above).
978-1-55380-496-3
Submitted on August 28, 2017 in By David.
