Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Saint Boniface, Manitoba, Canada
About Louis Riel
- Louis David Riel (; French: [lwi ?j?l]; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people of the Canadian Prairies.
- He led two rebellions against the government of Canada and its first post-Confederation prime minister, John A.
- Macdonald.
- Riel sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.
- Over the decades, he has been made a folk hero by Francophones, Catholic nationalists, native rights activists, and the New Left student movement.
- Arguably, Riel has received more scholarly attention than any other figure in Canadian history.The first resistance led by Riel became known as the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870.
- The provisional government established by Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the modern province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation.
- Riel ordered the execution of Thomas Scott, and fled to the United States to escape prosecution.
- Despite this, he is frequently referred to as the "Father of Manitoba".
- While a fugitive, he was elected three times to the House of Commons of Canada, although he never assumed his seat.
- During these years, he was frustrated by having to remain in exile despite his growing belief that he was a divinely chosen leader and prophet, a belief which would later resurface and influence his actions.
- Because of this new religious conviction, Catholic leaders who had supported him before increasingly repudiated him.
- He married in 1881 while in exile in Montana in the United States; he fathered three children. In 1884 Riel was called upon by the Métis leaders in Saskatchewan to articulate their grievances to the Canadian government.
- Instead he organized a military resistance that escalated into a military confrontation, the North-West Rebellion of 1885.
- Ottawa used the new rail lines to send in thousands of combat soldiers.
- It ended in his arrest and conviction for high treason.
- Despite protests and popular appeals, Prime Minister Macdonald rejected calls for clemency, and Riel was executed by hanging.
- Riel was seen as a heroic victim by French Canadians; his execution had a lasting negative impact on Canada, polarizing the new nation along ethno-religious lines.
- Although only a few hundred people were directly affected by the Rebellion in Saskatchewan, the long-term result was that the Prairie provinces would be controlled by the Anglophones, not the Francophones.
- An even more important long-term impact was the bitter alienation Francophones across Canada felt, and anger against the repression by their countrymen.Riel's historical reputation has long been polarized between portrayals as a dangerous half-insane religious fanatic and rebel against the Canadian nation, or by contrast a heroic rebel who fought to protect his Francophone people from the unfair encroachments of an Anglophone national government.
- He is increasingly celebrated as a proponent of multiculturalism, although that downplays his primary commitment to Métis nationalism and political independence.
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