Métis leader Louis Riel moved another step closer to open rebellion against the federal government on this date in 1885 with his announcement that he had declared a provisional government at Batoche. Riel himself was named this government’s political and spiritual leader at the same time. A week later, Riel’s soldiers engaged in combat with members of Northwest Mounted Police at Duck Lake. The Métis defeated their opponents and the uprising against Ottawa was fully joined. Further battles ensued until Riel was forced to surrender to federal forces on May 15. He was later tried for treason and executed later in the year.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.