History has been rewritten and much of the public’s opinion has long since changed. But Louis Riel, the Métis leader executed as a traitor in 1885, can still provoke a fight.

Now, though, more than 130 years after he was tried and hanged for treason, it is the people Riel fought and died for who can’t seem to agree on how — or even whether — to take the last step in his political rehabilitation.

In a statement to the Star, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s office acknowledged it is trying to determine how best to honour Riel.

“The ideals that Louis Riel fought for — ideals of inclusiveness and equality — are the very same values on which we base our country’s identity,” spokesperson Pierre-Olivier Herbert said.

The campaign to exonerate Riel is being led by a francophone Métis group in Manitoba, who want to see Canada use its 150th anniversary celebrations to right a historic wrong.

“Riel should receive a complete exoneration without any conditions,” the group, L’Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph, which dates to 1887, writes in a 70-page dossier that was submitted to the federal government last year, and which was provided to the Star.

The group cites legal irregularities that would be grounds for a modern-day mistrial as well as Riel’s legislative and cultural contributions to Canada, such as aboriginal land rights, minority language rights, the founding of the province of Manitoba and the legitimization of a distinct founding people of mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

“The Métis, agents of change and conduits between cultures who embodied Canadian values even before Canada formally existed, must receive justice and honour for Louis Riel, their leader,” the group argues in the document.

Other Métis groups are promising trouble if Ottawa dares make such a move without their consent.

“It would be very unwise of them,” warned David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation.

“This would probably alleviate Canada’s stress and pressure and guilt that they have maintained when the facts are very clear that they murdered this great leader. Exoneration is not about Riel. Exoneration is about Canada.”

Riel’s critics are also warning that Ottawa risks an implicit endorsement of armed rebellion against the forces of law and order by clearing Riel’s conviction.

The relatively low-profile exoneration campaign was ushered into the spotlight this week when it got the backing of Montreal’s city council. The Québécois have always had a soft spot for the francophone firebrand, who was educated and later hospitalized in the province after being diagnosed by psychiatrists as suffering from megalomania, a disease described at his treason trial as “an insane, an extraordinary love of power.”

But this movement has really been building since former prime minister Joe Clark passed a motion in the House of Commons recognizing Riel’s “major contribution to the development of Canada as we know it.”

That was in 1992, when Ottawa was trying to round up support for constitutional amendments in the Charlottetown accord, which was ultimately defeated.

Since then, there have been more than a dozen bills tabled in the House of Commons, where Riel was elected three times as the MP for Provencher but never permitted to take his seat. Each sought the posthumous cancellation of the guilty verdict in his treason trial. Each was shuffled away and ignored by successive governments, never coming close to a vote.

“We never give up, absolutely not. Our position has always been that unless Riel is exonerated, reconciliation doesn’t really occur,” said David Doyle, a Riel activist and author.

“It would be similar to South Africa: if they hadn’t exonerated Nelson Mandela, reconciliation would not have occurred, and we feel the same way about Riel.”

The Métis National Council, which has represented Métis organizations in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia since 1983, fears an exoneration would only be used to shift attention away from the more concrete and pressing demands of its people.

“We have nothing against honouring Louis Riel,” said Clément Chartier, the council president. “What we’re opposed to is whitewashing history to try to mask the grave injustice that was done not only to the Métis nation but to Louis Riel.”

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He would rather see the favourable shift in public opinion toward the Métis leader harnessed to address current issues.

“Even if they do these other things, we still may not be favourable to an exoneration, by whatever terms they want to use,” Chartier said. “We’re not saying it’s a quid pro quo. We’re just saying let’s rectify the wrongs. Let’s not dwell on symbolism because symbolism is not going to feed our people or house our people or employ our people.”

Jacqueline Blay, president of the Société franco-manitobaine, which is also pushing for Riel’s exoneration, acknowledged the split among Métis organizations. But she argued that the 150th anniversary of Canada’s founding is the time to correct a historical injustice, not to carry on the manoeuvring and partisanship that doomed previous efforts to rehabilitate Riel.

Blay, a historian, was actually the author of the dossier submitted to the federal heritage minister and noted that it was based as much as possible on incontrovertible facts in order to remove any element of political whimsy from Ottawa’s eventual decision.

“(Riel) should be exonerated because it’s been too long that he has been vilified, scorned and ignored and unjustly accused of treason. In fact, his trial should never have been held,” she said.

That’s also the opinion of George Goulet, a lawyer and Métis scholar who, along with his wife, Terry, wrote the 1999 book The Trial of Louis Riel.

Goulet’s main argument is that Riel was improperly tried and convicted under an English statute of treason that dated to 1351. He said the charge was made under that law for the sole reason that it carried a penalty of death. In fact, he said that law was not even applicable in Canada, which adopted its own treason law in 1868.

In addition to that, Riel’s appointed defence lawyers argued — against his wishes — that the Métis leader was not guilty because he was insane, an argument rejected by the jury. Charles Fitzpatrick, the Quebec City lawyer who led Riel’s defence, was also related by marriage to Adolphe-Philippe Caron, the minister of militia and defence when Riel clashed with Canadian forces.

“(Fitzpatrick) should never have taken the case when he had those conflicts,” George Goulet said.

But 131 years after Riel’s execution was carried out, sparking anger among francophones, celebration in English Canada and a sense of doom among his Métis and indigenous allies, some believe that allowing politicians to rewrite a disputed chapter of Canada’s history could instead cause modern-day troubles.

Tom Flanagan, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Calgary, said the debate over Riel’s conviction is better left to legal scholars, but admitted that the status quo — with political leaders singing the praises of a man executed as a traitor — leaves an unresolved tension.

“I think you should leave history the way it was. What happened happened. I don’t think you should try and reverse it,” said Flanagan, who has written extensively about Riel’s legacy.

“If there is an exoneration, the message is that the government of Canada is saying it’s OK to have taken up arms because it was a just cause, and I think that is a very dangerous message.”

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