Laurentian celebrates Louis Riel day downtown

Laurentian University and the McEwen School of Architecture will be using their downtown campus to celebrate Louis Riel Day today.

Riel was a politician who helped defend Metis rights and preserve their culture in Canada in the 1800s.

Juliette Denis, a Metis Elder at Laurentian University, said the celebrations are bittersweet, since Nov. 16thalso marks the day Riel was hanged for treason.

She hopes the chance to celebrate Riel's role in Canadian history will also remind people to learn about who he was, and what he represented to Indigenous people.

"After having taken notice of what happened, which is almost like a grief, right? We will then want to put that behind and now celebrate this," Denis said, "and celebrate our culture and so people can come and celebrate with us."

The McEwen School's central location is an appropriate place for the celebrations, said David Fortin, an assistant professor at the school.

"We are better able to connect into the community where we are, as opposed to the campus. which, you know there is a physical gap," Fortin said.

"[Downtown] we're close to the friendship centre, we're close to the Metis Council and we're also close to a lot of the Indigenous people in terms of where they live in the city," he said.

Louis Riel Day in Sudbury begins with the raising of the Metis flag at city hall at 11:30 a.m. today, followed by Indigenous food, music, discussions and a sneak peak of a newly-built birch bark canoe at the McEwen school.