A statutory holiday in Manitoba has commemorated Louis Riel’s legacy as the father of the province for nearly two decades. In 2025, that day in February holds added significance.
On this year’s Louis Riel Day, observed on Monday, Métis people in the province will be awaiting the culmination of what Riel started when he was negotiating a treaty with Ottawa for Manitoba to join Confederation.
Last November, the Manitoba Métis Federation signed the federal government’s first modern treaty with a Métis group. The accord would grant them an inherent right to self-government and law-making powers over their own citizenship, elections and lands.
But it has yet to receive royal assent because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to prorogue Parliament, leaving the agreement in limbo.
“Fighting to achieve this recognition for our people is what got Louis Riel killed all that while ago,” David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation, said in an interview Sunday.
“This stalling of our rights is shameful. After all this time, we’re still waiting. But it is in our blood to fight tooth and nail on this until we get this done. We will break mountains if we need to.”
Riel led a provisional government in what is now Manitoba and forged the path for it to become a province in 1870. As tensions rose during the transfer of land from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Canadian government, Riel fought for rights to form the basis of Manitoba’s entry into Confederation.
Riel had been led to believe that 1.4 million acres of land would be reserved for Métis residents once Manitoba became a province. But Ottawa did not follow through on its promise. After Riel led a rebellion and was arrested in Saskatchewan, he was executed for high treason in 1885.
Since then, Riel has been variously viewed in Canada as a traitor by some and a hero by others. But over recent years, public perception has shifted significantly.
Monuments across the country now recognize him as the father of Manitoba, including the stone marking his grave in Winnipeg’s Saint Boniface Cemetery, and through his recognition as a founder by the House of Commons in 1992.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, in his first legislation after forming government, recognized Riel as the province’s first-ever premier, providing the honourary title by unveiling a new plaque underneath a portrait of him in the legislature.
Manitoba began to recognize Louis Riel Day in 2008, on the same day that is marked as Family Day in much of Canada.
Cindy Desrochers is the director of Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, located next to Riel’s final resting place. It holds the biggest collection of Riel-related artifacts in Canada – including his shaving kit, locks of his hair, the moccasins and face cap he wore on the day of his execution, and the coffin his body was transported in from Regina to Winnipeg. The museum has also provided educational resources and tours to Manitoba schools for decades, despite the Louis Riel Act making such learning for students mandatory only in 2023.
Ms. Desrochers said changing the “negative narrative” around Riel is a work in progress, and the most recent delay in finalizing the treaty reflects that struggle.
“It’s sad that we come to these treaties and agreements that somehow lose their weight over the years,” she said. “And then the government is trying to backpedal and correct the wrongs that happened.”
Mr. Chartrand said that except for the Conservatives, all other major federal parties – the Liberals, NDP, Greens and Bloc Québécois – have agreed to support the treaty once Parliament returns. Meanwhile, he said, Métis organizations in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta are waiting for treaties of their own.
“I’ve met with Pierre Poilievre and he told me we’d have a meeting, but I have yet to have that meeting,” Mr. Chartrand said.
“I keep asking over and over again. It is incredibly worrying that we have a party right now that could become our government and has still not committed to what it will work on with us.”
Mr. Poilievre’s office did not respond to requests for comment by deadline Sunday.
Gregory Frame, spokesperson for Liberal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, said that Louis Riel Day is a reminder of Canada’s “shared responsibility to advance the self-determination rights of Métis across Canada.”
“Our government is proud to have signed the first-of-its-kind Self-Government Treaty with the Manitoba Métis Federation,” he said in a statement. “It is disappointing, though not surprising, that Pierre Poilievre refuses to support this milestone agreement.”