).Chester Brown is best known for his two recent non-fiction graphic novels, Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (2003) and Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John (2011). Flags of the Métis, Regina: Gabriel Dumont Institute. See Calvin Racette's Flags of the Métis (Regina: Gabriel Dumont Institute, 1987 Racette, C.

In Craft dinner: stories & texts 1966–1976, Toronto: Aya. In bp Nichol's ‘The Long Weekend of Louis Riel’, Riel's antagonists George, Johnny and Billie (likely, George Cartier, John Macdonald, and William Macdougall) discuss what Riel has come to mean: ‘hell said George its the perfect image the perfect metaphor he's a symbol said Johnny but he's dead thot billie but didn't say it out loud’ ( 1978 Nichol, bp. That Brown's running as a Libertarian in the 2008 Federal Election might reveal a political attitude is not evidenced in the book.Ħ. It is difficult to state exactly which books have influenced Brown's account the most, as the book's presentation of its central figure is largely politically neutral in that it includes somewhat sympathetic depictions in addition to less-than-flattering scenarios. Braz wisely notes that ‘one should not discount the possibility that Riel's Canadianization may also reflect the profound ambiguity about the nature of citizenship that still prevails in Canada’ (2003, p. The outpouring of literature sympathetic to Riel's plight was penned by a notable cadre of (contemporary) Canadian literature: John Newlove, Dorothy Livesay, Al Purdy, Rudy Wiebe, Raymond Souster, bpNichol and Erin Mouré.ģ. In 1885 Riel surrendered, was tried that summer, and executed for treason that November.Ģ. He returned to Canada, this time to Saskatchewan, where he led the Métis in what became known as the North-West Rebellion. During his exile, Riel's apparent mental illness provoked his growing religious mania. Though he won a Manitoban federal parliamentary by-election in October 1873, Riel, being sought by authorities, never took his seat.

The Canadian Government sent a military expedition to Red River, with the result that Riel fled, in August of that year. Thomas Scott, an antagonist, was arrested by Riel's government and subsequently executed, in March 1869. The resistance created a power vacuum, which was filled by Riel's provisional government.

The territory known as Rupert's Land, owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, was in the process of being sold to the Canadian Government but Riel led a coalition of Métis and non-Métis settlers to denounce the proposed survey of the lands. At 13, he entered a seminary in Montreal, but later abandoned his studies in 1865 and returned to Red River in 1868. Louis Riel, a Métis, was born near (modern-day) Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1844, part of the Red River settlement. * 2–8 and 10–13 © Chester Brown are reproduced here with his kind permission.ġ.

Louis riel by chester brown