Monday, March 17, 2008

The Grab and Maul Soft on Treason

In today's Globe and Mail is this very sensitive story on the Riel Rebellion that begins.

It's the site of a pivotal moment in Canadian history, where Louis Riel's provisional government launched the Red River Resistance of 1869 and where Riel ordered the execution of Thomas Scott the next year.

It wasn't "resistance" but a traitorous revolt against Canada. Riel was justly hung as a traitor who took arms against the state, the "armed resistance". Thomas Scott wasn't "executed", that implied some lawful authority, but was lynched by Riel's Metis junta. When many have a misplaced romantic notions about "rebels" let us the remember the unhappy fate of countries with eternal revolutions.

No comments: