Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T05:55:52.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exiled, Executed, Exalted: Louis Riel, Homo Sacer and the Production of Canadian Sovereignty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2010

Kevin Bruyneel
Kevin Bruyneel*
Affiliation:
Babson College
*
Kevin Bruyneel, Division of History and Society, Babson College, Wellesley MA 02144; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Abstract. In this article, I argue that Louis Riel is a necessary invention for the production of Canadian sovereignty. The argument builds on the work of Giorgio Agamben. I see Riel as a Canadian version of homo sacer, “who may be killed but not sacrificed,” and thereby serves as the exception that proves the rule of Canadian sovereignty. I carry out this argument in three stages, focusing first on Riel's exile in 1870 after the Red River Rebellion. I then bring Agamben's insights into an examination of the tensions between French and English Canada over Riel's execution in 1885. Finally, I look at the contemporary exaltation of Riel, focusing on the two statues that have occupied the legislative grounds in Winnipeg, which, when considered in tandem, serve as a metaphor for the relationship between liberal and colonial dynamics in Canada political history. The liberal–colonial relationship is key to Riel's ambivalent standing in contemporary Canadian political life.

Résumé. Dans cet article, je tente de démontrer, en m'appuyant sur le travail de Giorgio Agamben, que Louis Riel est une invention qui fut nécessaire à la création de la souveraineté canadienne. Pour moi, Riel est un homo sacer version canadienne, quelqu'un qui peut être éliminé mais non sacrifié et qui, par conséquent, représente l'exception qui confirme la règle de la souveraineté canadienne. Mon argumentaire se développe en trois étapes, mettant d'abord l'emphase sur l'exil de Louis Riel en 1870, à la suite de la rébellion de la Rivière-Rouge. En tenant compte du point de vue d'Agamben, j'analyse ensuite les tensions entre francophones et anglophones exacerbées par l'exécution de Louis Riel en 1885. Enfin, je jette un regard sur la réhabilitation de Riel dans le Canada contemporain en comparant les deux statues qui ont tour à tour orné le Palais législatif à Winnipeg. On ne peut s'empêcher d'y voir une métaphore de la relation entre les dynamiques libérale et coloniale à travers l'histoire de la politique canadienne, cette relation étant un élément clé pour comprendre le statut ambivalent de Riel dans la politique canadienne contemporaine.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 711 - 732
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans. Heller-Roazan, Daniel. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Arora, Ved. ed. 1985. Louis Riel: A Bibliography. Regina: Saskatchewan Library Association.Google Scholar
Bill C-257. October 20, 1999. “An Act respecting Louis Riel,” Second Session, Thirty-sixth Parliament, 48 Elizabeth II, First Reading.Google Scholar
Bill S-29. 2004. “An Act to honour Louis Riel and the Métis People.” Third Session, Thirty-seventh Parliament, 52 Elizabeth II.Google Scholar
Bower, Shannon. 2001–2002. “‘Practical Results’: The Riel Statue Controversy at the Manitoba Legislative Building.” Manitoba History 42 (Autumn/Winter): 30–38.Google Scholar
Bowsfield, Hartwell. 1969. Louis Riel, Rebel of the Western Frontier or Victim of Politics and Prejudice? Toronto: Copp Clark.Google Scholar
Bowsfield, Hartwell. 1971. Louis Riel: The Rebel and the Hero. Don Mills ON: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Braz, Albert. 2003. The False Traitor: Louis Riel in Canadian Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Chester. 2003. Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly.Google Scholar
Brown, D.H. 1975. “The Meaning of Treason in 1885.” Saskatchewan History 28: 65–73.Google Scholar
Bumsted, J.M. 2001. Louis Riel v. Canada: The Making of a Rebel. Winnipeg: Great Plain Publications.Google Scholar
Creighton, Donald. 1970. Canada's First Century. Toronto: Macmillian.Google Scholar
Estlin Bingaman, Sandra. 1972. “The Trials of the ‘White Rebels,’ 1885.” Saskatchewan History 25: 41–54.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Thomas. 1979. Louis “David” Riel: Prophet of the New World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Thomas. 1983. Riel and the Rebellion: 1885 Reconsidered. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Thomas. 1985. “Chronology.” In The Collected Writings of: Louis Riel, 5, ed. Stanley, George F. G., Flanagan, Thomas and Rogan, Claude. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Flanagan, Thomas and Watson, Neil. 1981. “The Riel Trial Revisited: Criminal Procedure and the Law in 1885.” Saskatchewan History 34: 57–73.Google Scholar
Friesen, John W. 1996. The Riel/Real Story: An Interpretive History of the Métis People of Canada. Ottawa: Borealis Press.Google Scholar
Hathorn, Ramon and Holland, Patrick, eds. 1992. Images of Louis Riel in Canadian Culture. Queenston: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar
Jenish, D'Arcy. 1999. “A grim end to defiance: the courts helped crush Cree Resistance [Excerpt from Indian Fall: The Last Great Days of the Plains Cree & The Blackfoot Confederacy].” Maclean's. 112, Issue 37.Google Scholar
Macdonald, Sir John A. 1921 [1869].Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald: Selections from the Correspondence of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, G.C.B., ed. Pope, Joseph. Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Macdonald, Sir John A. 1969 [1885]. House of Commons Debates. In Louis Riel, Rebel of the Western Frontier or Victim of Politics and Prejudice? Bowsfield, Hartwell, ed. Toronto: Copp Clark.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, Glen. 1996. “Riel rekindles a people's pride.” Winnipeg Free Press, May 13, A4.Google Scholar
Manishen, James. 1994. “Riel sculptor joins protest over creation's removal.” Winnipeg Free Press, July 17.Google Scholar
Mattes, Catherine A. 1998. “Whose Hero? Images of Louis Riel in Contemporary Art and Métis Nationhood.” Master's thesis. Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.Google Scholar
McMillan, Alan D. 1988. Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada. Vancouver and Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre.Google Scholar
Moore, Terry. 1995. “Some monumental cement.” Winnipeg Free Press, October 25, A8.Google Scholar
Moore, Terry. 1996. “An empty statue.” Winnipeg Free Press, May 14, A8.Google Scholar
Morton, Desmond. 1998. “Images of Riel in 1998.” Canadian Speeches 12 (2): 22.Google Scholar
Morton, W.L. 1956. Alexander Begg's Red River Journal, and other papers relative to the Red River Resistance of 1869–1870. Toronto: Champlain Society.Google Scholar
“New Louis Riel statue unveiled on Manitoba Day.” 1996. Kitchener Waterloo Record, May 13, D4.Google Scholar
Owram, Douglas. 1988. “The Myth of Louis Riel.” In Louis Riel: Selected Readings, ed. Bowsfield, Hartwell. Toronto: Copp Clark.Google Scholar
Reid, Jennifer. 2008. Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada: Mythic Discourse and the Postcolonial State. Albuquerque NM: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Riel, Louis. 1985 [1869]. “Declaration of the People of Rupert's Land and the North West.” In The Collected Writings of Louis Riel. Les Ecrits Complets de Louis Riel, 1, ed. Martel, Gilles and Stanley, George F.G.. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Riel, Louis. 1985 [1870]. “Memorial of the people of Rupert's Land and North-West” to Ulysses S. Grant. Red River. In The Collected Writings of Louis Riel. Les Ecrits Complets de Louis Riel, 1, ed. Martel, Gilles and Stanley, George F.G.. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
“Riel statue damaged.” 1991. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), October 25, A4.Google Scholar
Roberts, David. 1996. “New bronze statue is the Riel thing.” The Globe and Mail (Toronto), May 13. D4.Google Scholar
Sheppard, Robert. 1991. “We should get down to the bare essentials.” The Globe and Mail (Toronto), September 19, A19.Google Scholar
Siggins, Maggie. 1994. Riel: A Life of Revolution. Toronto: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Silver, A.I. 1982. The French-Canadian Idea of Confederation, 1864–1900. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Sprague, D.N. 1988. Canada and the Métis, 1869–1885. Waterloo: Sir Wilfred Laurier Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, George F. 1960. The Birth of Western Canada: A History of the Riel Rebellions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, George F. G. 1988. “The Last Word on Louis Riel: The Man of Several Faces.” In Louis Riel: Selected Readings, Bowsfield, Hartwell, ed. Toronto: Copp Clark.Google Scholar
Stanley, George F. G., Flanagan, Thomas and Rogan, Claude, eds. 1985. The Collected Writings of Louis Riel, 5. Edmonton AB: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
“Statue furor takes twist; grand-niece upset by plans.” 1994. Winnipeg Free Press. July 19.Google Scholar
Stonechild, Blair and Waiser, Bill. 1997. Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion Calgary: Fifth House Ltd.Google Scholar
Thompson, Napolon. 1886. The Gibbet of Regina: Truth About Riel: Sir John Macdonald and His Cabinet Before Public Opinion by One Who Knows. New York: Thompson & Moreau.Google Scholar
“Vandalized Riel statue soon will be replaced.” 1991. Kitchener-Waterloo Record, November 15, B11.Google Scholar