Focus on Statue of Louis Riel and analyze the Previous statue and controversy.
The current statue replaced an existing statue of Riel. Installed in 1970 and unveiled in 1971, the previous statue was conceived by Marcien Lemay and Étienne Gaboury. It depicted Riel in the nude, with a distorted and compressed body, and was considered controversial. By 1991, the Manitoba Metis Federation and the Government of Manitoba agreed to create a second statue to replace the one by Lemay and Gaboury due to sustained criticism and repeated vandalism. The controversial statue was relocated to the grounds of the Université de Saint-Boniface in 1995.
Marcien Lemay Manitoba Metis Federation Étienne Gaboury Manitoba Université de Saint-Boniface Government of Manitoba