(Ottawa) In partnership with Métis Nation of Ontario, the Ottawa Police Service will celebrate Louis Riel Day with a banner unfurling at police headquarters. Members of the community and media are cordially invited to attend.
WHERE: Ottawa Police Service, 474 Elgin Street
WHEN: Thursday, November 14, 2013
TIME: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
The banner will commemorate Louis Riel Day and will be on display until Monday November 18, 2013. Light refreshments and cake will be served.
About Louis Riel Day
LOUIS DAVID RIEL (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885), was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Louis Riel sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. The first resistance was the RED RIVER RESISTANCE of 1869–1870. The provisional government established by Louis Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the modern province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation. Louis Riel was forced into exile in the United States as a result of the resistance. While in exile in Montana he married Marguerite Monet dit Bellehumeur in 1881 and fathered two children, Jean Louis and Marie-Angélique. During his exile, Louis Riel was elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, although he never assumed his seat.
Louis Riel returned to what is now the province of Saskatchewan to represent Métis grievances to the Canadian government. This resistance escalated into a military confrontation known as the NORTH-WEST RESISTANCE of 1885 culminating in the BATTLE OF BATOCHE (9-12 May, 1885). It ended in Louis Riel’s arrest, trial, and execution on a charge of high treason. Riel was viewed sympathetically in francophone regions of Canada, and his execution had a lasting influence on relations between the province of Quebec and English-speaking Canada.
Today, Louis Riel is regarded as a Father of Confederation and the Father of Manitobaâ€. Many communities and cities throughout Canada commemorate Louis Riel Day on November 16