Father of Deconfederation?
A Manitoba friend writes:
I'm thinking of lobbying for a private member's bill to create a new statutory holiday -- perhaps "Journée Thomas Scott Day" on the 12th of July or "Journée Victimes de Massacre de Frog Lake Massacre Victims Day" on April 2.More on this madness here.
9/26/2007
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Manitoba...went to French immersion elementary school in Notre Dame de Lourdes. There we sang on Riel's birthday, "Louis Riel, on ne t'oublira jamais." Switched to English for high school and got the other side of the story.
I say this as the great-grandson of a member of the Wolseley Expedition:
Riel deserves a holiday. He was the great victim of our homebrewed version of Manifest Destiny and the old Orange Order tribal intolerance that once defined Ontario, thankfully no longer.
That said, I doubt we'll see McGuinty calling his February holiday the "Jour Louis Riel".
We celebrate and name our towns, cities and streets for much worse people.
Riel was standing up against injustice and bigotry. Though there may have been some dark moments he was trying to make this country a better place.. and he did.
Also, just to point out, if I remember correctly he had nothing to do with the Frog Lake Massacre.
A hero AND a victim. Only in Canada.
A hero AND a victim. Only in Canada.
Er, what? I can think of any number of cultures with heroes who are also victims.
Any great and famous soldier who ever died in battle qualifies. For that matter, so do Jesus and Ali.
Sorry, I meant Jesus and Husayn.
I say this as a descendant of Gabriel Dumont: Louis Riel was a traitor that deserved the gallows.
I've been proposing that the next piece of federal infrastructure in Ottawa, following the grand tradition of names that reflect our shared heritage, be called Pont Groulx–Richler Bridge.
hoser to hoosier
Traitor to bloody what?? Riel was simply defending his home against a bunch of A holes from Ontario.
"Riel was simply defending his home against a bunch of A holes from Ontario."
Yes, the first time. Even if you can justify his first actions, his second ones were just ridiculous. The only excuse for not hanging him was insanity.
"Even if you can justify his first actions, his second ones were just ridiculous."
To paraphrase Justine Bateman from Family Ties:
"Louis Riel committed a sartorial crime -- he went out of fashion."
Certainly the faux Lenin beardware and religious ranting was a trifle risque for the times.
I've always pictured him as Jack Nicholson's Joker from Batman One:
"Wait'll they getta load of me!"
My Coyne
So I am assuming from this that you feel a Riel Day is a bad idea.Once again you show your ignorance of all thing related to indigenous issues.
No reasoning just a link to a comment that is based on nothing but rehetoric.Have the nuts to at least state your own opinion.In fact this humble blogger would be more than willing to go head to head with you on any indigenous issue.
"Madness" indeed,I know in all likelihood you would never take up my challenge,from a "no body".But I thought I would throw it out there, who knows...
After all,most punditry in the MSM is based more on opinion than anything else and is no different from much of the writing one finds within the blog sphere,although some media columnist like to think otherwise.Not that there is anything wrong with stating one opinion.
But should it not at least,be based on some thing other than just pure baseless opinion,or something one thinks sounds about right.
I agree with you on some points i.e MMP,FPTP,but when it comes to First Nation issues.You sir are as ill informed as so many other Canadians.But at least(thankfully) their jobs(being most are not part of a National media org) do not allow them too, so prominently display and propagate their ignorance.
What
He was the great victim of....
So if Riel was a victim of intolerance no doubt Thomas Scott had it coming???
Man I love how delusional people are, Riel killed the man, and now people justify any action.
Riel was a victim my ***,....
He was a megalomaniac that's why he was in and out of asylums.
Course that isn't politically correct so our lousy schools didn't teach the school children that, and enriching diversity means that even if you are nuts and tie people up and shoot them for insubordination you should celebrate that diversity.
If you are a protestant European and hence everyone is your victim just consider your self lucky to be alive.... Or you could end up feeling the diversity, like Thomas Scott.
Just remember you have it coming.
So if Riel was a victim of intolerance no doubt Thomas Scott had it coming???
I'm not going to argue he deserved to die, and killing him was Riel's first huge mistake.
But just read about the guy. How well were murderous foreign instigators generally treated in those days? If a gun-toting Fenian showed up in Ottawa wanting to kill Sir John A, what would happen to him?
And I say "foreign" because at the time what would later become Manitoba was not part of Canada. Canada was a foreign colonial power.
I won't pretend Riel and Metis really had a real chance of having their own country, or that Riel ha no blood on his hands. But it absolutely amazes me that this 19th-century Orange Order depiction of Riel as a bloodthirsty traitor persists to this day.
If you are a protestant European and hence everyone is your victim just consider your self lucky to be alive.... Or you could end up feeling the diversity, like Thomas Scott.
Right, kill or be killed, eh? This sort of Social Darwinism belongs in the dustbin of history where we put it after 1945.
"Joan Tintor:
A hero AND a victim. Only in Canada."
is that what you're getting paid my tax dollars for joan, stating moronic crap that doesn't make sense? that's canada's new gov't TM, paying people to write moronic crap that doesn't make sense. please canada's new gov't, put the rest of the blogging tories on the dole; they're clearly unemployable and in need of help. thanks canada's new gov't.
a hero and a victim??? like a martyr? a tragic hero? der! ;-)