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Nov. 7 - Nov.14, 2004 |
Italians are influential cultural force
The study of the language is integral to multicultural make-up of all of Canada
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2003-02-02
Louis Riel appeared onto the political scene of Canada in late 1869, when he established a Métis republic in Manitoba. He was a man of great intuition, but also temperamental, somewhat self-aggrandizing, a Francophone and a Catholic; enough for him to be seen as anathema by the establishment of a country that had recently become a Dominion of His British Majesty.
Riel's attempt to establish a Métis republic in Manitoba was crushed by the Canadian army. Despite being pursued, he managed to escape into Montana, but in 1884 he reappeared in Saskatchewan for a repeat of what had failed in Manitoba. "I am a prophet, infallible pontiff and supreme priest," he said. Maybe he believed that, but that did not prevent the republic of Saskatchewan from ending miserably in June 1885 at Batoche, where the republican rebels were defeated. Riel was captured, tried for high treason and sentenced to death. Many people interceded in his favour, but Prime Minister John A. Macdonald was irremovable. "He'll be hanged," he said, "even if all the dogs of Quebec were to bark for him." Riel was hanged at sunrise on a livid November day of 1885.
"Riel was likely unaware of the importance of what he was doing," says Fulvio Caccia, "but the Canadian identity was born with him. It has never found full expression because this country is still the fruit of a Monarchical pact underwritten by two failed colonial empires, French and British America. That pact endures to date and its premise is the negation of republic. When that premise is voided, Canada will finally acquire a specific identity of its own."
Caccia, author of poetry and essays, is one of the only two Italian-Canadian authors (the other is Nino Ricci) to be presented the prestigious Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary prize. His latest books La Republique Métis and Republic denied - The loss of Canada raised great controversy. But even beyond the theses defended in them, they give a fair indication of the quality level that Italian-Canadians bring to cultural debate in this country.
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