Regina city administration laying foundation to honour Louis Riel

The Regina Planning Commission will discuss waysto honour the legacy of Mtis leader Louis Riel at its meeting on Wednesday.

Riel, who was executed in Regina on Nov. 16, 1885, had previously been on a list of names for potential streets. However, the commission said Riel'sname is expectedtobe removed from the list, in favour of different ways to honour him.

The agenda for Wednesday's meeting indicates that the city wants to honour Riel to show his importance to Regina andCanada as a whole. However, it needs to do so in a way that's safe and will not cause confusion.

The report said Riel's legacy "should be honoured in an alternative way that will not negatively impact community safety." It suggests an art installation, plaque, monument or a ceremony.

"I would also go further and I would say it's not just Riel. I think some of the other Indigenous leaders should be part of it," said Jean Teillet, lawyer and a descendant of the Riel family.

Teillet said she would like to see any major design elements of any project to honour Riel to include his heritage. Teillet said some of the first laws, like conservation laws, came from the Mtis nation.

"Yet, nobody knows any of this kind of stuff," Teillet said.

Commission chair Barbara Young, who is also councillor for Ward 1, pointed to a city policy which states half of any new parks developed in the city have a name from an Indigenous language. Twenty-five per cent of new streets will also have an Indigenous language name.

"We are working with elders and knowledge keepersto put together Indigenous names a list of them that we could choose from," Young said.

Young said the city would like to avoid the confusion which could arise from some streets which already have two names. For example,Albert Street is also known as The Green Mile, a reference to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

If there were to be a street named after Riel, it could cause confusion for first responders if there were ever an emergency call on that street, she added. Louis Riel Trail is also the name of Highway 11.

The question of just how to honour Riel is expected to be referred to Reconciliation Regina, a group of people working within the Office of the Treaty Commissioner.