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The trial of

Louis Riel

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BUMTIETL

N OVEMBER 16 is an historic date in th
On this day in 1869 the Northwest Conve
and English-speaking Metis of the Red River Settlements
provisional government of the Northwest. Its Bill of Rights and
foundation for the government of Manitoba,

Sir John A. MacDonald’s Tory go

ment of the Red River.

But it was Reil and the
West from the Fenian raids from the U.S.

in 1871.

e stormy early history of our prairies.
ntion of representatives of the French

met.

This body became the
other reforms laid the

proclaimed a province in 1870.
vernment at Ottawa suppressed the govern-
Metis they asked to save Canada’s

On November 16, 1885, 16 years later, the founder and savior of the Canadian

West was hanged in Regina. His
and the Metis whom MacDonald

“crime’’ was that he took up the cause of the Indians
had driven from their Red River homes.

The following is a dramatic reading from the actual transcript of the trial of

Louis Riel as presented last year at a concert given by the magazine

SCENE ONE

Clerk: This court is now declar-
ed open.

Mr. Justice Richardson.: Mr.
Sheriff, will you bring in'the pris-
Ooner? -

{Riel is brought in).

Richardson: Louis Riel, have
_you been furnished with a copy
of the charge, of the panel of jur-
ors, of the list of witnesses for
the prosecution?

* Riel: Yes, your honor.

Richardson: Arraign the pris-
oner.

Clerk: Sixth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1885, at the town
of Regina, in the Northwest ter-
ritories . . . Louis Riel, you have
been charged on oath as follows:
That Louis Riel being. a subject
of our Lady the Queen, not re-
garding the duty of his allegiance,
nor having the fear of God in his
heart, but being moved and se-
duced by the instigation of the
Devil, did maliciously and traitor-
ously attempt and endeavor by
force and arms to subvert and
destroy the Constitution and Gov-
ernment of this Realm.

Richardson: The clerk will ask
the prisoner whether he is guilty
or not guilty.

The witnesses are brought for-
ward, the prosecution and.defense
lawyers pose their questions.

Louis Riel sits by quietly watch- °

ing. He does not take part. He
has three lawyers from Montreal
to defend him. The movement in
the West had no money for coun-
sel, so friends in Montreal got to-
gether and employed three men
and sent them West. These law-
yers did not know the full details
of the case. Their aim was to
save the life of Riel, and they set
out to do this with the plea of in-
sanity. ; ’

Riel fought against this plea,
but they convinced him it was the
only hope. Witness after witness
was questioned with the idea of
showing that Riel was unbalanc-
ed during the events of the rebs!-
lion. But finally Riel knew that
this was -wrong. He told the
court “my condition is helpless,
soihelpless that my good lawyers
—and they have done it with con-
viction — have had recourse to
try and prove insanity to try and
save me that way.” ‘

Riel had fought for the rights
of the people of the West and he

_ dian.

LOUIS RIEL

knew that he was neither wrong
nor insane. He was a true Cana-
At the end of the trial he
tore aside the false veil of in-
sanity, and ripped to pieces the
hypocritical accusation of high
treason. :

SCENE TWO”

Riel: Your Honor, Gentlemen
of the Jury. When I came into

‘the Northwest in July, the first

of July, 1884, I found the Indians
suffering. I found the Metis. eat-
ing the rotten pork of the Hud-
son’s Bay Company and getting

sick and weak every day...I have.

directed my attention to help the

Indians, to help the Metis and to .
‘help the whites to the best of my

ability. We have made petitions
to the Canadian government ask-

ing to relieve the condition of

this country. We have taken
time, we have tried to unite -all
classes, even if I may so speak,
all parties.

. .. Thinks I would like to call
your, attention to are: Firstly,
That the House of Commons,
Senate and Ministers of the Do-
minion who make laws in this
land and govern it are no repre-
sentation whatever of the peopie
of the Northwest. Secondly, that
the Northwest Council generated
by the federal government has
the great defect of its parent.
Thirdly, the number of members
elected for the Council by the
people made it only a sham rep-
resentative legislature’ and no
representative government at
BL. Ao -

By the testimony laid before
you during the trial, witnesses on

’

New Frontiers.

both sides made it certain that
petition after petition has been
sent to the federal government,
and so irresponsible is the gov-
ernment to the Northwest, that
in the course of several years be-
side doing nothing to satisfy the
people of this great land, it has
hardly been able to answer once
or given a single response. That
fact would indicate absolute lack
of responsibility and therefore in-
sanity complicated with paralysis.

The ministers of an insane and

irresponsible government and its

little one, the Northwest Council,
made up their mind to answer my
petitions by surrounding me slyly
and by attempting to jump upon

me suddenly and upon my people -

in fhe Saskatchewan. Happily
when they appeared and showed

their teeth to devour, I was
ready: that is what is called my
crime of high treason and for
which they hold me today. . .

The agitation in the Northwest
Territories would have been con.
stitutional and would certainly
be constitutional today, if, in my
opinion, we had not been attack-
ed . . . When we sent petitions
to the government, they used to
answer us by sending police.

The man who saved the West
from annexation by the Nnited
States continues his address, over-
ruling the advice of his lawyers.

Riel: No one can say that the
Northwest was not suffering last

year, particularly the Saskatche-

wan’. . . What I have done and
risked and that to which I have
exposed myself rested certainly:
on the conviction I had to do, was
called upon to do something for
my country... <>
Your Honors, Gentlemen of the
Jury, it would be easy for me to-
day to play insanity, because the

circumstances are such as to ex-

cite any: man.

If you take the plea of the de-
fense that I am not responsible
for my acts, acquit me complete-
ly, since-I have been quarreling
with an insane government. If

Clerk:

you pronounce me in favor of the
Crown, which contends that I am
responsible, acquit me all the
same. You are perfectly justi-
fied in declaring that having my
reason and sound mind I have
acted reasonably and in self-de-
fense, while the government, my
accusers, being irresponsible and
completely insane, cannot but
have acted wrong, and if high
treason there is, it must be on its
side and not on my part.

The jury went out to reach its
verdict. Millions were waiting
for the word from Regina. They
met in many places to ask that
Rie! be set free. ‘In the West they
gathered in small groups — in
Montreal they held large meet-
ings, which spilled over into all
parts of Quebec. In many places
in the United States, and even
across the ocean in France, men
who. loved freedom and honored
its heroes gatherd to ask that
the life of Riel be spared. Then
the jury finished its deliberation
and the word came. — ;

FINAL SCENE

Gentlemen, are
agreed upon your. verdict?
say you? Is the
or not guilty?

you
How
prisoner guilty

Juror: We find the prisoner —
guilty as charged.

Clerk: Gentlemen of the Jury,

Continued from page 9 _

Hope for cancer victims

at and conquer cells anywhere in
the body.

So far not too much in the way
of concrete cures has come out
ef this line of research. Drugs,
such as nitrogen mustard, have
been developed, which do help
(temporarily at least) in certain

cases, such as cancer of the blood-

stream. ¥ :
__ But, as more and more becomes

known about the cause of can->
cer, this type of therapeutic ap-
proach is bound to grow, in im-
portance until, perhaps not too
many years from now if a real

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 19, 1954 — PAGE 18

t $

Louis Riel’s house (above) near
Winnipeg is now a district post
office. Gabriel Dumont, Metis -
leader, is buried in the same ceme-

tery overlooking the Saskatche-

wan River where the memorial
(left) to Metis killed at Batoche
in 1885 now stands.

harken to your verdict as the
Court records it: You find the
prisoner, Louis Riel, guilty, 50
say you all.

Jury: Guilty.

Juror: Your Honor, I have bee!
asked by my brother-jurors to re
commend the prisoner to the
mercy of the Crown.

Richardson: I may say in ans
wer to you that the recommenda
tion which you have given will

be forwarded in proper manner
to the proper authorities . - -
Louis Riel, have you anything to
say?

Riel: Yes, your Honor. |
Richardson: Then speak.

Riel: Up to this moment I have
been considered by a certain
party as insane, by another party
as a criminal, by another party aS
a man with whom it is doubtful
whether to have any intercourse.
So there was hostility, there was
contempt and there was avoid:
ance . . . I suppose that after
having been condemned I will
cease to be called a fool, and for
me it is a great advantage . - :
Should I be executed, at least, if
I am going to be executed,
would not be executed as an 12
sane man. , . ;

I will perhaps one day be -
acknowledged as more than 4
leader of the Metis, and if I am
I will have an opportunity
being acknowledged as a leader
of good in this country. ;

Richardson: Louis Riel, after 4
long consideration of your case
. .. you have been found . - :
guilty . . . of high treason . - :
It is now my painful duty to pass
the sentence... 6

"And Louis Riel was thereupon"

sentenced to be hanged at Regina —
on September 18, 1885. Efforts
to save his life failed, though the
execution was delayed until No
vember 16, 1885, at Regina.

Today across the land many:
Paying their tribute to a great
Canadian patriot, will sing:

They who hanged him from the
scaffold, ert cs
They are now forgotten men,

' But to all who fight for freedo™

Louis Riel lives again. We

i

national and international effort

is made, the dread killer will be

made no more dangerous tha

the once dread smallpox.

® This is the second of two -
articles on cancer by ay
_ Stachel. The first appeare
last week. :