Assignment # 8: The Real Riel

- I am responding to assignment # 8.

- Firas: Hello everyone and welcome to “Interviews with Firas Darwiche” and today I am going to be interviewing a very colorful person: Mr. Louis Riel. Now before I start interviewing Mr. Riel, I would like to let you know that this interview is taking place in jail where Mr. Riel is spending his last weeks before being executed as he was sentenced to death. I am going now to give a small introduction about him.

- Louis Riel was probably one of the most controversial figures in Canadian History. He was born in St. Boniface 1844. He became a politician, the founder of the province Manitoba, and the leader of the Métis people of the Canadian Prairies. Louis Riel was a Métis himself, which is a son or daughter of an aboriginal and a European, and sought to preserve Métis rights and culture.

- Firas: Alright Mr. Riel let's begin. In the year 1858, you were sent to Montreal with the hope to become a priest. What happened then?

- Louis Riel: Well Firas, I didn’t like being forced to do something I don’t like, so I dropped out because I wanted to study law with a man named Rudolphe Laflamme.

- Firas: What did you do after that?

-Louis Riel: After that, I also dropped out of college. Then I found work in Chicago and in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later, I returned to Saint-Boniface in 1868.

- Firas: Thank you and now I have another question. What was the purpose of the Red River Rebellion?

- Louis Riel: When I returned back, the Canadian government decided that all of the Métis farms would make great places to install English-speaking settlers from Ontario and without regard for the Métis rights. Faced with this threat, we decided to resist. We set up a provisional government for the territory we called Manitoba. I was elected as the president of the federal government so I decided to take over Fort Garry (which is Winnipeg) and made a list of Métis rights. I thought this will emphasize to the federal government the importance of negotiating with them Manitoba's entry into the Canadian Confederation. Sir John A. McDonald decided to negotiate but I was sent into exile for the United States for executing Thomas Scott, an Ontarian. I think this was a bad idea because this execution provoked hate against me especially in Ontario.

- Firas: That is a very good answer. But I am still wondering, why did you kill Thomas Scott? Did he threaten to kill you maybe?

- Louis Riel: I didn't execute him because he was trying to kill me, I executed him to demonstrate to the Canadians that the Métis must be taken seriously.

- Firas: Thank you for clearing things up, but I do have more questions. In 1882, federal surveyors once again descended on the Métis and treated them exactly as they had done in 1869. What did the Métis do this time?

- Louis Riel: I was still living in the United States, the Métis once again appealed to me to come back, be their leader, form a government, and organize a resistance. This time though, we had support of the Plains Amerindians, who also saw them selves threatened by the encroachment of settlers from the East. The government refused to negotiate and sent troops to fight against us. The combined force between us and the Amerindians wasn’t strong enough and some of my people fled away so I was imprisoned and charged with high treason.

- Firas: What happened after you got imprisoned?

- Louis Riel: I went to court and gave two long speeches about why I did this and many more but the judge sentenced me to death.

- Firas: Wasn’t there any attempts made to overturn the death sentence?

- Louis Riel: Yes of course. My defense tried very hard to prove I am not guilty by reason of insanity. However, I rejected these attempts. I prefer to die as a hero and not live the rest of my life as an insane.

- Firas: Beside politics, did you do something else?

-Louis Riel: Of course, I am also a writer. I have lots of publishing related to poetry, religions, and politics.

- Firas: When is the death sentence is going to take place?

- Louis Riel: Very soon, on November 16, 1885.

- Firas: Thank you some much for letting me interview you Mr. Riel and just to let you know, I am on your side.

- Louis Riel: Thanks.

* I hope you enjoyed this assignment. Happy Blogging. Here is a list of websites I visited that helped me:

1- Wikipedia: Louis Riel

2- Louis Riel

3- The Heritage Centre: Biography of Louis Riel

-P.S. Special thanks to Timmy for helping me understand more about Louis Riel and for Tale for helping understand more about the Métis.

-P.S. In a website I visited, it said: "In early 1999, in response to a favourable survey of federal Members of Parliament, MP Denis Coderre introduced a bill in the House of Commons to pardon Louis Riel. The pardon would rehabilitate him in the eyes of history and give him the honour he deserves as a champion of the rights of the Métis and the Amerindians", so they declared him innocent.