Cody Bousquet, Louis Riel, and more graffiti

On Page A13 of the Saturday Free Press, there was a little article called "Minimum sentences prevail":

Canada's top court refused to lower the sentence below the legislated minimum for Lyle Nasogaluak, an Alberta oil rig worker who suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung from an RCMP beating when he was arrested for impaired driving and leading police on a high-speed chase.

As it should be. A wrong by one person doesn't cancel out a crime by another. Unfortunately the Supreme Court didn't say anything about dropping charges and essentially buying off a dangerous offending punk like Cody Bousquet because the police officers wrongly, but understandably, roughed him up a little bit. Those officers should be reprimanded I suppose, but no way should the crown have given an inch in prosecuting the little shit.

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Q: Is Louis Riel a hero or a villain?

A: He's both.

Riel is different things to different people, and through the clouded lens of time he can be viewed as either. I argued on the first Louis Riel day, partly tongue-in-cheek, that it doesn't really matter. Most heroes from the past were flawed, but we forget about the bad things and remember the good things because it gives us a figure to rally around. At that point they become icons ... almost fictitious. Riel the person was a murderer, possibly insane, and certainly divisive. But Riel the hero and icon is something else entirely.

RELATED: Dust My Broom one and two. That second one is a particularly good read.

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I just noticed that the Free Press also picked up on the "authorized graffiti area" puzzle that I wrote about here and here. I must say that the Uniter did a much better job of covering it.

I suspect that commenter B-bonn is a reader of this blog.

Louis Riel Day

So what did you do for Louis Riel day? I killed a white man and wrote a poem. Haha. Kidding. Seriously people, get a sense of humour already. Me? Write a poem?

124 years after his death, Louis Riel is still a contentous figure in these parts. Just witness this exchange from the Winnipeg Sandbox forum :

GC: Louis Riel was a criminal...! F*%k Riel and all of his ancestors...muwahahahaa
AM: You do know he's in my family, right?

So Riel was a murderer and a crazy man, and got hung for treason. That's all water under the bridge now. George Washington was no peach either, but that didn't keep him off Mount Rushmore. Every country needs heroes to rally around and historical figures to give it a sense of identity. Riel's biggest shortcoming is that he is little known outside of Manitoba and Saskatewan, so he can never be a national hero, but if we try really hard to forget his faults he can become our Che Guevara here in Manitoba. We can put pictures of him on the sides of our buildings and wear our "Keepin' it Riel" t-shirts with pride. We have a hero shortage in this country, so I think it's time we here in Manitoba took the initiative and embraced Mr. Riel as our founding father. Here's to Riel!