Riel gravestone defaced, suspect sought

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2022 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg gravestone of Louis Riel was defaced earlier this week — an incident the province’s current Métis leader calls a hate crime.

An image of Riel and his name on the grave marker at St. Boniface Cathedral Cemetery were repeatedly scratched sometime Monday afternoon by a male suspect, Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand said Thursday.

“Defacing the father of Manitoba, the first leader of our province, is very upsetting,” he said, noting the vandalism was done just days before the anniversary of Riel’s birth, Oct. 22, 1844.

“It’s a hate crime, because we’re Métis.”

Riel helped found the province, establishing a provincial government which he and others negotiated into Confederation, and was the leader of the Métis in two resistance movements against the federal government.

Convicted of treason, he was executed in Regina on Nov. 16, 1885, and his body returned to Winnipeg for burial.

A community member spotted a man vandalizing the stone Monday, then yelled at him and snapped a picture of the suspect, Chartrand said.

The MMF has filed a police report, and Chartrand said he wants the suspect to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray confirmed police received the report Monday and the major crimes unit is investigating.

“No charges have been laid at this time,” he said Thursday.

The MMF leader said he’ll go all out to make sure whoever did the damage is held responsible.

“I don’t care what it takes. I’m not going to let him get away with this, it’s too important to us. It should upset every Manitoban,” Chartrand said.

“When it attacks Riel, attacks my people, then I become very defensive. I’m a diplomat, I negotiate… but this is different.”

The federation is considering taking out advertisements to identify the suspect, he added.

Métis people are particularly respectful of gravesites and other depictions of beliefs, and attacks on such spaces hurt, Chartrand said.

A spate of vandalism in a city Jewish cemetery in June — at least 70 headstones were knocked over in Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s graveyard — personally upset him, he said.

“I’d ask him why, why would you do that to (Riel)?” said Chartrand, referring to the vandal. “What if I did that to your father or mother or someone you loved?”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera