Elzéar Goulet went to the Red Saloon on September 13, 1870. While there, a local called him out as the man who “shot Thomas Scott,” and he was quickly chased out of the bar. As Goulet fled, he attempted to swim across the Red River until a stone hurled from the crowd hit him on the head, causing him to drown.

Walk into the West side of St. Boniface Cemetary. The first set of lamps on the walkway will be a few steps in. Stand in the middle of the walkway in between the lamps and face the river.

Elzear Goulet was born the son of Alexis Goulet and Josephte Siveright at St. Boniface the 18th of November,1836. The Goulet name was a prominent one in the Red River Settlement and one of his ancestors had accompanied Sieur de La Verendrye’s expeditions to the prairies. Elzéar quite likely accompanied his father Alexis on several bison hunts before his marriage to Hélène Jérome dit Saint-Matte at Pembina where he established himself and became an American citizen. He soon worked as a mail carrier traveling between Pembina and the Red River Settlement. As such he was generally well-regarded and respected within the Red River community.

In the fall of 1869 Elzear joined the Louis Riel led Métis Resistance against the Canadian attempt to assume sovereignty over the Hudson Bay Company Territories without consulting the residents of the Red River Settlement as to what the changes in administration would mean to their rights and land holdings. Appointed as the military second in command to the Adjutant-General Ambroise D. Lépine, Goulet served as one of the jurors for the trial of Thomas Scott on the charge of treason against the Provisional Government. He also participated in the execution of Scott on the 4th of March 1870. While Scott’s fate had a salutary effect on others within the Red River Settlement opposed to the provisional Government, it set off a storm of outrage in Ontario. Despite the negotiated settlement of issues between Canada and the Red River which culminated in the Manitoba Act, along with promises of goodwill and a General Amnesty emanating from Canada, many of the Ontario volunteers attached to the Wolseley Expedition had little interest in reconciliation. With the arrival of the expedition on the 24th of August, Riel was forced into exile as the ill-disciplined volunteers sought vengeance on anyone associated with what they perceived as “rebellion” against Imperial authority. On the 13th of September, 1870, Goulet went to the Red Saloon in the then small village of Winnipeg despite being warned by others of the potential danger. A local declared to some of the off duty volunteers that Elzear was the man “who shot Thomas Scott” and the chase was on! Pursued by several men, Goulet fled towards the Red River along what is now Lombard Avenue. As he attempted to swim to the relative safety of St. Boniface his pursuers hurled stones at him until eventually he was hit in the head and subsequently drowned. Even though the guilty parties were identified, no charges were ever laid out of fear that any arrests could not be enforced as the perpetrators would have been supported by the de facto police force itself.

The un-punished death of Goulet was only a part of a series of assaults, house burnings, murders and rapes which were carried out by would-be avengers of Thomas Scott. The “reign of terror” which descended upon Red River during Manitoba’s first years were a harbinger of things to come. Countless delays and confusion over securing title to the farmsteads they already occupied, as well as access to the 1.4 million acres supposedly to be set aside for their children, left the Métis vulnerable to fraud, frustration, and unscrupulous land speculators. Many simply abandoned their claims and the new province to head further west or even to the United States.

The people who had populated, built, and defended the Red River Settlement over generations saw their birthright pass into the hands of the newcomers to the Province they had helped create.

Written by Phil, revised by Rob.