While the use of the “insanity defense” has been a legal tactic for ages, one curious instance of its use—and the story behind it—continues to fascinate.
THE EARLY YEARS
Louis Riel was born on the Red River Settlement, in what is today the borderland between the province of Manitoba and the United States, in the year 1844. The Red River Settlement was then occupied by First Nations tribes and Métis families, a group of both First Nations and European ancestry. A Métis of seven-eighths European ancestry, Riel showed precociousness in his studies and was recommended for coursework at a seminary in Montreal. While he did well, the untimely death of his father in 1864 caused him great emotional pain; he became prone to bouts of depression, and left the seminary in 1865. He tried formal study again, this time at a convent school run by nuns, but was asked to leave due to his dissolute attitude.
A period of waywardness and itinerant labor followed. Riel worked as a law clerk in Montreal, had a love affair and thwarted marriage proposal with a young woman, took clerking jobs in Chicago and St. Paul, tried his hand at poetry, and ultimately returned to the Red River Settlement in 1868. His future was uncertain, but he had the life experience of a man more than twice his age.
THE MAKINGS OF A LEADER
The Settlement was in the midst of great changes. New migrants from America and other Canadian cities such as Ontario were openly hostile to the Métis and to Roman Catholicism, the predominant religion of the area. What was more pressing, however, was the fact that the area on which the Red River Settlement stood—a wide swath of property known as Rupert’s Land—was in negotiations to be sold. The Hudson’s Bay Company owned it at the time, but the Canadian government had strong interest in purchasing it. The new American settlers, naturally, wanted the United States to annex it.
During Red Bull Flugtag in Gatineau, Quebec, people try to fly homemade air-worthy contraptions including a giant flying banana.
News of a Canadian-sponsored governmental survey of the Red River Settlement in August 1869 unsettled Riel and the Métis community. They feared displacement, the loss of their language and way of life, and suppression of their religious beliefs. As few held deeds to their property, there was no way of proving what was theirs. The community quickly began organizing resistance efforts. Riel emerged as a natural leader when he gave an incendiary speech against the survey in late August. That October, he and several other Métis tried to blockade progress of the survey; the group formally collectivized into the Métis National Committee and began fighting for Métis rights.
SQUARING OFF
Throughout the autumn of 1869, the Métis National Committee did all it could to stymie the efforts of the government. This included denying entrance of survey participants into Métis territory—including the lieutenant governor of the Northwest Territories, William McDougall. They also captured a major Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, Fort Garry.
In November, the Métis National Committee met with new settlers of the Red River Territory to discuss how to best deal with the infiltration of the Canadian government. That month the government demanded the Métis cease their disruptive activities. The Committee responded by drafting a list of grievances and desired rights.
On December 1, Rupert’s Land was formally transferred to the Canadian government. This did not stop the activity of the Committee. Riel and his men met with other settlers of the Red River Territory and presented the list of rights and conditions for accepting the new political boundaries. Most of the settlers agreed with these conditions, though several staunch pro-Canadians did not. They splintered off into the “Canadian Party” and found support with governmental officials. When it was discovered that the leader of the Canadian Party, Dr. John Christian Schultz, was recruiting men to fight against the Métis, Riel ordered Schultz’s home surrounded. Those who went forward with his instructions were arrested and imprisoned, adding further divisiveness to the already agitated area.
SUCCESS AND EXILE
The Métis National Committee announced itself a provisional government on December 8, 1869. Hearing of all the unrest, the Canadian government sent delegates from Ottawa to try and negotiate with the Métis. Formal talks began in January 1870 and went through the month. In the beginning of February the Canadian delegation accepted a new set of terms from Riel and agreed to let him send his own delegates to Ottawa to discuss the matter officially.
Things seemed to be going well for the Committee when an error in judgment nearly derailed its momentum—and Riel’s reputation. In an altercation with the Canadian Party in mid-February, Riel and his band captured 46 insurgents bent on bringing down the provisional government. One of the captured men, Thomas Scott, was tried for insubordination and sentenced to death by the provisional government. Riel refused to commute the sentence, despite pleas from his political allies, and Scott was executed on March 4.
Ottawa officially accepted many of the Métis’ demands for religious and language rights later that month. They were adapted into the Manitoba Act in May, which created the province of Manitoba. For this Riel is still called “The Father of Manitoba” and looked upon as a Canadian folk hero.
Still, at the time the Scott execution was still fresh in people’s minds, and the Canadian government used it as propaganda against Riel. When a military brigade was dispatched to the Red River Settlement to quash the final vestiges of the Red River Rebellion, Riel was forced to flee his beloved homeland.
TRIAL AND DEATH
In forced exile (to various Canadian cities and eventually the United States), Riel began to exhibit signs of mental illness. He was said to believe he was the divinely chosen leader of the Métis people. He was committed to two different mental institutions between 1876 and 1878, where he began writing lengthy pseudo-religious tracts and referring to himself as a prophet. Gradually his mental health was restored, and he relocated to Montana upon his release. Here he married, had children, and taught school.
In June 1884 his political fervor returned. Hearing that Métis settlers to the Saskatchewan territory were being denied land rights by the Canadian government, he traveled north to help their cause. The duration of his stay extended into the following year, when tensions between the Métis and the government triggered the North-West Rebellion. Riel and his forces surrendered following the Battle of Batoche in May of 1885.
Canadian golfer Moe Norman wore three watches on his left arm all set to the same time He usually drank 24 Cokes a day and never had a phone or a credit card.
With his long history of antigovernment activity, Canadian officials wasted no time in trying Riel for treason. In July he was brought before a jury in Regina, Saskatchewan. In the case’s most curious moment, Riel argued against his own lawyers when they tried to claim insanity as the cause of his actions. He maintained that all of his political involvement was justified and done for love of the Métis and his homeland. Despite his impassioned defense, the jury found him guilty. The judge, the very pro-Canadian Hugh Richardson, sentenced him to death by hanging. Riel was executed on November 16, 1885, a man with a complex personal history who nevertheless helped shape a fair and free modern Canada.
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MORE LOONY LAWS
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• In Sudbury, Ontario, it’s illegal to mount anything that makes noise to your bike, except a bell or a horn.
• In Quebec, it is considered illegal to impersonate a foreigner.
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• It’s against the law there to swear in French in Montreal.
• Snowmen taller than 30 inches are illegal in Souris, Prince Edward Island.
• The dairy industry was so opposed to margarine in Ontario between 1886 and 1948, margarine was banned in Ontario. After 1948, it became was legal to sell it, as long as it wasn’t the same color as butter.
• There is a much smaller selection of comic books in Canada: Any comic books that depict a crime are illegal in Canadaa