Mr. Speaker, human history is nothing but a litany of injustices. In fact, I would venture to say that if there were no injustices there would be no history. This is what gets written down, usually by the winners if there is a contest. It is recorded. This is how we know about things which happen.
If we want to talk about injustice, some of my ancestors were Highland Scots. They suffered injustices and brutality equal in every way to those suffered by the Metis people and for more or less the same reasons. However, I do not lay awake at night bringing down fire and brimstone on the heads of the wicked English. It is over. It is done. There is no need to go back to it.
I have very great problems with people who want to sugar coat history, who want to rewrite history. What happened, happened. It will not help Louis Riel or his descendants for this Parliament to come up with some sort of vacuous proclamation saying that we really did not mean it. The man was hung. He did not, when he had the opportunity, grovel. He did not ask for mercy. He could have taken a plea of insanity and he would have escaped, but he was a man of principle. He walked to the gallows quite firmly and strongly. He was not dragged kicking and screaming. He did not make any particular effort to avoid capture at the end of the rebellion. He would not have even had to go to trial. He could have gone to the United States with Dumont and been scot free, but he chose not to do so.
At this date, if we come forward and say Louis, it was a terrible thing, we are so sorry, that cheapens the man's memory. He was a tough man. He was not a cry baby. I do not think we should, even though I know we have it in our power, say we pardon him.
Actually, he did not have totally clean hands. He set in motion a rebellion which cost lives. Because he was not a very good general he unnecessarily cost the lives of many of his own people. If he had listened to Gabriel Dumont, the results of the rebellion might have been far different.
The man, let us face it, had a big ego. He wanted to be in charge. He did what he chose to do. He refused to stop Middleton before he got to the Saskatchewan River. He could have done so with Dumont's strategies.
I do not think that at this late stage it makes any sense at all for us even to be debating this in the House. We have more important things to do than to debate gestures. Let us face it, this would just be a gesture.
My advice to this House is to get on with it. We have some very real problems in this country which affect not only Metis people but all of us. Those problems are what we should be dealing with. We should not be debating what happened 113 years ago.