#state execution

Riel's central role in the 1869 declaration of Manitoba's provisional government was about stopping the colonial theft of Métis and Indigenous lands. Riel fought and, for a moment, won a multiethnic state with democratic, civil and religious liberties far beyond anything achieved in the rest of Canada at the time.

In achieving these goals, Riel was targeted for death by the Fathers of Confederation. Their excuse was the provisional government's execution of an Orange Order terrorist, Thomas Scott. Scott was part of the emerging Orange Terror that had already killed allies of the provisional government, and would go on to murder, maim, rape, and burn down the homes of Métis, Indigenous peoples and their white allies. This terror campaign was conducted in part by leaders of the Canada First movement, a movement to construct a new Canadian nationalism and assert the priorities of Confederation as outlined by its Fathers, such as John A Macdonald.

The bounty on Riel's head prevented him from later taking his seat in the House of Commons as a duly elected Member of Parliament. Exiled on the condition of amnesty in five years, Riel suffered a mental breakdown - which is widely recorded by apologists of colonial genocide as "megalomania" and proof of Riel's life-long crazy delusions. Here we see the "Great Man" approach to history used to dismiss the aspirations and efforts of entire peoples and movements that challenged and exposed Confederation for what it was.

Riel, of course, returned to take part in the Northwest Rebellion, an armed defence of Métis and Indigenous self-determination against the Canadian state; a Canadian state which had betrayed all that it promised after Manitoba's entry into Confederation.

With the defeat of the Northwest Rebellion, Riel was tried and hung. But history has vindicated Riel, whose vision of the prairies remains far in advance of what exists today, and whose involvement in the death of Orange terrorists and Canadian redcoats is entirely justified by the circumstances at the time. In fact, the execution of Thomas Scott and the armed rebellion on the Red River and in the Northwest are only more justified with the passage of time.

After Botched Execution, Oklahoma Replaces Lethal Injection with “Death by Dumbo”

Following the “incomplete” execution of Clayton Locket in Oklahoma earlier this year, the Oklahoma legislature has voted to replace lethal injection with “Death by Dumbo”.

Dumbo, a rogue circus elephant convicted of killing his long time handler in the late 90’s, is slated to become the state’s newest executioner.

Following the nationally embarrassing spectacle, Oklahoma’s dim but duly elected…