Participants in the 2014 provincial Louis Riel Day Conference at
Queens Park: (l-r) Alex Young, Métis youth representative,
Senator Rene Gravelle, Lisa Gretzky, NDP MMP, MNO
Secretary-Treasurer Tim Pile, Jean Teillet, great niece of Louis
Riel, PC MPP Norm Miller, Honourable David Zimmer, Minister of
Aboriginal Affairs, Senator Reta Gordon, MNO President Gary
Lipinski, Senator Verna Brunelle-Porter, MNO Chair France
Picotte and MNO Vice-Chair Sharon McBride.Louis Riel was the great Métis leader executed by the Canadian government for leading the Northwest Resistance in defense of Métis rights and the Métis way-of-life. Every year Louis Riel Day is held to remember what Riel sacrificed, and renews the commitment to completing his work.
The Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) celebrates Louis Riel Day to recognize the many contributions of the Métis to Canada and to highlight the continuing struggles that Métis continue to face. As MNO President Gary Lipinski has explained: “We celebrate this day to recognize our ongoing struggle to fulfill Louis Riel’s dream that the Métis take their rightful place within Confederation.”
Métis communities across Ontario hold Louis Riel Day events and a provincial ceremony takes place every year in Toronto at the Northwest Rebellion monument on the grounds of the provincial Legislature.