Riel and Rizal: A shared struggle

by Jon G. Malek

	Louis Riel's monument on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature	Jose Rizal's monument on Roxas Boulevard in Manila

Two statues, standing nearly twelve thousand kilometres apart, depict two figures in strikingly similar fashion. One, on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg facing the Assiniboine River, gazes fiercely outward as he grips rolled up papers in his left hand. He wears a Western-styled overcoat with vest, dress pants and fine shoes. His hair is coiffed, and his thick moustache well kept. The second, along Roxas Boulevard in Manila near the bay, looks focused upon something behind the viewer as he holds a book in his left hand. He wears a Western-styled overcoat with vest, dress pants and fine shoes. His hair is coiffed and his face well shaved. These two men, Louis Riel and José Rizal, are rarely spoken of in the same sentence and yet have so much in common. Born and raised in the context of Western colonialism, they utilized their education and charisma, as well as a skill with the written and spoken word, to defend their people and argue for their nationhood in the face of a dismissive occupying government. Both advocated for their beliefs and for their people, and both died for their visions and words.

José Rizal was one of the first figures in Philippine history of whom I learned. In 2016, I gave a talk on the importance of education in the thought of Rizal. Recently, I had the privilege and pleasure to take part in the reading of José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, scripted and directed by Ronald Mervin Sison, and hosted by the Philippine Heritage Council of Manitoba at the Philippine-Canadian Centre of Manitoba. As one of Métis descent, I have also been drawn to the life of Louis Riel, and it didn’t take me long to see the similarities in their lives.

Louis Riel was born in the St. Boniface Métis community on 22 October 1844. His father was a successful Métis businessman and political leader, having organized a resistance against the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1849. For his position as a Métis in the Red River Colony (focused along the Red River near modern Winnipeg), Louis Riel was well-educated. As a youth, his intellect was acknowledged by his teachers and, at the age of 13, he was identified by Catholic clergy in his community as a being a worthy candidate for the priesthood. He was recommended and travelled to Montréal to study at a Sulpician junior seminary. As with Rizal, Riel quickly rose to the top of his class and was known for his passion for poetry.

Rizal, too, was identified at a young age as a brilliant student. He would go on to study Law and Ophthalmology in Manila, Madrid, and Heidelberg in Germany. Riel’s position as a Métis – a radicalized group that was heavily repressed by the British and, after 1867, the Canadian colonial government – prevented him from travelling beyond Canada for education. Rizal, being a member of the Philippine elite and known as an illustrado, had access to wealth and status that enabled him to study abroad in Europe. While Riel did not travel as far as Rizal, they are both comparable in that they did travel to a colonial centre to attain a European-style education. It also worthwhile to note that they both grew up in strongly Catholic settings and received a Catholic education.

While Riel’s life was already remarkable by the time he returned to his home, standing out as an educated leader of the Métis nation in the Red River Settlement, it was the context of Rupert’s Land that spiralled Riel to prominence in the political landscape of Canada. Rupert’s Land was a massive territory that would today account for a third of Canada’s territory. It was land given to the HBC by the British government to pursue a monopoly in the fur trade, a lucrative industry that fuelled fashion tastes in London and beyond. This territory encompassed the drainage basin of the Red River Valley, and included what is now Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan. In March 1869, eight years after Rizal’s birth, the HBC sold Rupert’s Land to the government of Canada. In anticipation of the acquisition of lucrative and fertile lands, the government appointed William McDougall as Lieutenant-Governor of the region. The territory was not yet a part of the country of Canada, whose confederation had only occurred in 1867.

This act of the Canadian government alarmed the Métis, and this was heightened by the arrival of Donald Smith (the namesake of both Donald and Smith Streets in Winnipeg) to Upper Fort Garry as a representative of the HBC in January 1870. A rampant racist, Smith made no attempts to hide his utter contempt for Riel and the Red River Métis. Smith was arrested by the Métis government after taking part in the attempted takeover of Upper Fort Garry and was executed for treason.

This act brought the wrath of the Canadian government, leading to the Wolseley Expedition in the summer of 1870. While it was called a peaceful mission by the Canadian government, Riel saw that his life was in danger and fled to the United States. He returned in May 1871 and entered federal politics. The Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, was very cautious in dealing with Riel. While all of Ontario – largely British – hated Riel, he was revered in Quebec – largely French – as a defender of the Catholic faith. Riel was eventually offered a deal of amnesty in exchange for an exile of five years to allay the influence and agitation that he had come to embody.

Riel was quickly drawn back in June 1884 at the behest of the Métis in the Saskatchewan Valley to defend their legal rights against an imposing Canadian government. However, the context had changed since 1870: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been established and exerted great power in the Canadian prairies, and the trans-continental railway to the West Coast had been built, allowing for a rapid deployment of soldiers from Ontario. This meant that Canada was far less willing to deal in good faith with Riel and the Métis. After a confrontation at Batoche in Saskatchewan, Riel was arrested, tried, and executed in 1885 by the Canadian government.

At his trial, Riel’s lawyers tried to portray him as insane, but his final statement to the jury demonstrated his lucidity and oratory skill:

Your Honours, gentlemen of the jury: If I was a man of today perhaps it would be presumptuous to speak in that way, but the truth is good to say, and it is said in a proper manner, and it is without any presumption, it is not because I have been libelled for fifteen years that I do not believe myself something. I know that through the grace of God I am the founder of Manitoba. I know that though I have no open road for my influence, I have big influence, concentrated as a big amount of vapour in an engine. I believe by what I suffered for fifteen years, by what I have done for Manitoba and the people of the North-West, that my words are worth something. If I give offence, I do not speak to insult. Yes, you are the pioneers of civilization, the whites are the pioneers of civilization, but they bring among the Indians demoralization. Do not be offended, ladies, do not be offended, here are the men who can cure that evil; and if at times I have been strong against my true friends and fathers, the reverend priests of the Saskatchewan, it is because my convictions are strong. There have been witnesses to show that immediately after great passion I could come back to the great respect I have for them.

While not as eloquent as Rizal’s Mi Último Adiós, written in prison the night before his own execution in 1896, both statements share a lot in common. Both uphold a love, loyalty, and servitude to their homeland: Rizal to the Philippines, Riel to his homeland of Manitoba. Both Rizal and Riel see the Spanish and British/Canadians, respectively, as colonizers, outsiders in their homeland. They both recognize the existence of a distinct people occupying a distinct homeland currently controlled by those outsiders. Furthermore, both the lives of both Rizal and Riel were shaped by colonialism. Rizal, the first to write of the Philippines as the homeland of Filipinos as opposed to Spain, believed his people composed a nation capable of self-governance (if in need of a little more preparation). Riel believed the Métis were a nation, too, and he fought to bring this to reality, founding the first government of Manitoba. In doing so, he was responsible for the formation of Manitoba as a part of the Canadian confederation in 1870. While just a province in the eyes of Ottawa, to the Métis, Manitoba was (and is) a homeland, a nation of its own.

Two men, separated by thousands of kilometres, but not that many years, grew up in the shadow of European colonialism and, despite the weight of such, came to be leaders of their people. Their lives and influence both continue today, symbolizing the struggle against colonization and embodying independence. Both used Western tools (language, political ideas, governmental structures) to fight off the yoke and weight of Western colonialism, helping to birth nations of proud, independent peoples.

This comparison can be a means to build bridges between the Métis and other Indigenous peoples living in what is now Canada and Filipinos. Both Métis and Filipinos have a major point in common: we were colonized. A big difference is that Filipinos have won their freedom back from the grips of colonization, while the Métis in Canada continue to live in a colonized land. While colonialism has shaped the homelands of Métis and other Indigenous peoples, so has colonialism shaped the history of the Philippines, leading many to seek a better life abroad and find a new home in the nation of the Métis. The Red River valley historically has been a land where peoples have come together peacefully; European colonialism broke that pattern, but now we have a chance to renew those networks of friendships and shared pasts.

Jon Malek is an Assistant Professor of History at Providence University College. His research is on the history of the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora. His current writing projects include a book on the history of Filipinos in Canada and a project on Filipino food and culture.