The following is a chronological account of the events leading up to the destruction of the Métis Syndicate, the formation of the 2nd Métis Republic during the Virginian Occupation, and the ultimate formation of the National Union of the Métis
The history of the Métis is convoluted, and many of the nations conflicts are misunderstood if not viewed in the proper historical context. Before delving into the details of recent events, I will briefly outline the course of Métis history up to its initial independence.
The Métis are the ethnic group resulting from the relationships between early French voyageurs and coureurs du bois (Runners of the Woods) and women of the Cree, Ojibwa, Algonquin, Salteaux, and other native nations, beginning in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Hybridizing native and European lifestyles, the Métis (Archaic French for Mixed) developed a variety of lifestyles, typically acting as agents in the booming North American fur trade, working for the great trading companies based out of Québec and Montréal. In the open Prairies, the Métis developed a cavalry culture, becoming famous for their horseback hunting of migrating buffalo. While local legends would tend to stretch the truth of their marksmanship, the Métis nonetheless did become extremely adept at shooting from horseback.
As the European population of North America grew throughout the 19th century, many of the lands of the Métis ultimately fell into the jurisdiction of Québec. Being francophone Catholics, the Métis had little issue with this and were largely left to their own devices. However, as population of the continental interior grew, the Métis were slowly pressured into adopting a more settled, agricultural lifestyle- the alternative being marginalization by the ever-increasing Québecois settler population.
For a time, this status quo went well. However, around the turn of the century, the government of Québec was beginning to develop stronger and stronger anti-native factions. All too often, the Métis population of Québec either found itself in the crossfire, or wilfully placed itself in harms way to protect its native half-brothers. Relations between les Québecois Européenne and les Québecois Métis began to polarize, with the population of European descent growing increasingly conservative and the mixed population growing increasingly radicalized. While the line began as a primarily ethnic divide, many liberal European Québecois began to identify more with the Métis, while conservative Québecois Métis began to hide their partial native ancestries and identify with Québec.
All of these building tensions ultimately came to a head in the Great War. A prominent figure in the Métis community, a schoolteacher and politician named François Cloutier, wrote a letter to then-leader of Québec Jean Hobelle. In it, he noted the worrying lack of defense in the western reaches of the country, and requested permission on behalf of his people to form a militia to fight for Québec and the security of the west. Hobelle soundly rejected this offer, but the Métis militias began to form nonetheless, as Iroquois forces began to advance into Métis lands. Determining continued support of the government to be impractical and self-defeating, Cloutier made great use of his oratory skills to convince the disparate leadership of the Métis to support him in a large-scale defection against Québec.
In the 1st day of March, 1906, François Cloutier published a Métis declaration of Independence. In collusion with the Iroquois, who supported his movement, Cloutier directed the Métis militias against the government of Québec. A furious response from Hobelle, promising dire vengeance and grossly disparaging his rebellious subjects, would ensure the fate of the Métis- regardless of ones initial support for the rebellion, fear of retribution made gaining independence from Québec a necessity. The bridge had been crossed, and now it burned. To this day, the relationship between Métis and Québecois has not recovered.
Ensuring Métis independence in the Treaties of Rome and Sudbury, François Cloutier returned home from Europe to find the nascent Métis Republic in a poor state. The nations infrastructure was terribly underdeveloped outside the narrow strip of heavily-populated land between Winnipeg and Fleuve-Michif. Cloutiers grand plans for a Republic quickly proved unfeasible- the various Métis organizations which had supported his movement were focused on their own issues, and participated only minimally in national discourse. The difficulties of running a government in such a far-flung nation made democracy all but impossible. Thus, Cloutier set out on a grand plan of construction and development, ostensibly as a prerequisite before instating his promised democratic government.
Sadly, Cloutier never did hold the elections he had promised. His development projects dramatically boosted the Métis economy, with the help of German and Swedish investment. Centralizing power in himself, he came to outmuscle the inwardly-focused councils and provided greater unity and organization than the Métis people had ever seen before. A strong vision of the Métis nation as a power in the world, rich in people and resources and strong in its traditions, drove him forward. However, this noble focus gradually began to degrade into a simple obsession towards development. Criticism by the educated population of the Republic gradually grew throughout his reign, demanding democracy and an end to the increasing foreign economic dominance. This simmering discontent came to be supported by the dull roar of the common population, as many of Cloutiers costly investments began to fail. Several strikes in German-run mills just added fuel to the rising flames of anger against Le Despote Cloutier.
By 1918, various workers groups, supported by a charismatic figure named Serge Sauvage, united to form Les Syndiqués Métis. Cloutier, facing all-out rebellion, requested for foreign aid in crushing what he characterized as a communist revolution. Serge Sauvage, a soldier by training, demonstrated great tactical prowess in addition to his oratory capacities, convincing much of Cloutiers army to defect to the rising Révolution Syndiqué. Sauvage briefly held control over the country when German forces arrived and forced back the Syndicalists, propping up Cloutier. The Syndicalists organized country-wide strikes, and skirmished with the Germans. The two forces seemed poised for devastating war, but Sauvage maintained open communications with the German Empire, and expressed his willingness to compromise. In exchange for ensuring the protection of already-present foreign investments, Germany would allow the Métis to hold their first ever democratic elections. In 1920, under foreign supervision, Serge Sauvage was elected, and declared the formation of La Grande Syndiqué de la Métis (The Great Syndicate of the Métis). Cloutier would quietly retire from politics, and fade into obscurity in the remote northern settlement of Lac dOurs.
Institutionalizing the young democracy democracy and forming powerful workers unions, Sauvage structured the Métis Syndicate to ensure the rights and quality of life of the working population, providing powerful tools of representation at both the employment and administrative levels of governance.
The Syndicate ultimately joined the International Socialist Cooperative Group as an observer, and later a partner in technology development. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Métis saw limited economic growth, with regular setbacks, but enjoyed rapidly increasing education, healthcare, and overall quality of life. Sauvage gradually developed into a significant figure in the Socialist International as a leader of the dove faction, which held the belief that the global revolution was not an aggressive war, but rather a slow and willing adoption of socialism by the non-socialist world. In support of his views, he outlined the 3 points of his philosophy in the Sauvage Doctrine, which outlined then actions of a proper socialist nation. In short, an adherent to the doctrine must make the welfare of the common people the predominate result of economic development, avoid aggressive wars, and engage in open relations with the non-socialist world.
Throughout the lifespan of the Métis Syndicate, the Parti Syndiqué and Sauvage maintained great popularity. During the 1920s, the main opposition was the Parti Commerce, which advocated for the loosening of economic restrictions in the country and the opening of greater trading relationships with neighbouring capitalist nations. However, this party was gradually superceded in the early 1930s by the Parti dÉsprit Français (French Spirit Party), which in addition to wishing to dismantle the Syndicalist government, held a widely divergent and often-changing view on foreign policy, at various points advocating for alliances with Québec, Nouvelle-France, and even the Co-Axial Pact of Nations.
In the final days of the Syndicate, the internal rift in the nation was approaching a deadly threshold. The outbreak of civil war in Canada was, in retrospect, the beginning of the end. The Sauvage government was greatly concerned about the conservative movement in Canada, which was perceived as being vigorously anti-francophone. Initially, the Métis recognized the original Liberal government as the legitimate authority in Canada. However, this group was quickly overrun by the Sudbury-based Peoples Republic of Canada, and by Harvey Dents conservative forces.
The destruction of the original government of Canada presented Sauvage with a terrible quandary. The Québecois rebels had already openly expressed their negative feelings towards the treacherous Métis, and with Dents ideologies as they were, Sauvage had no reasonable choice but to recognize the Peoples Republic. Despite this, starting in 1934 he sent in significant amounts of civilian aid and medical volunteers, to help ease the suffering of his neighbours and, hopefully, improve their relationships in the future.
It was Sauvages implicit tolerance of the Mexican Red Brigade in the Peoples Republic of Canada that would be the Syndicates downfall. This favour shown to the communists provided justification for the Métis right wing elements raising militias of their own, and sending them to fight against and sabotage the nascent Sudburyist nation.
It was on May 9, 1936, with the Métis on the brink of civil war, when the Virginian forces struck through the Algonquin nation into the Syndicate. Sauvage desperately tried to rally his surprised army against the invaders, but the Métis army was too small and lacked the heavy equipment needed to properly combat the Empire of Virginia. Baie-Tonnerre was gone by May 14, and the Capital of Winnipeg was in Virginian hands before June. Here, with the majority of the population and industry of the nation captured, the Virginian advance ceased, allowing the Syndicalists some breathing room to regroup further to the north. The first Prairie winter took a heavy toll on the occupiers, but throughout the summer ongoing air raids demolished much of the heavy equipment of the Syndicalist army, stretching the Métis defenders exceedingly thin. The Syndicate, operating out of temporary headquarters in the city of Dauphin, barely managed to hold their ground, nearly falling to an attack by Harvey Dents Canadian faction.
1938 was the first contact of the Métis with the chemical warfare. The spring had seen the Virginians renew their offensive, punching through the Métis lines and driving through the northern communities, scattering the remnants of the Syndicalist Army before them. Sauvage initiated a brief harassment campaign, only to see the Virginians respond by gassing any villages found- or in many cases, simply suspected- of hiding partisans or soldiers. After observing a few villages being made example of, Sauvage ordered the rest of the army to scatter, to reform in the future, and disappeared from Virginian sight.
It was during the drafting of the abortive Treaty of Baton Rouge that Sauvage reappeared in Winnipeg under banner of truce, to sign a treaty which would bring back the Métis Syndicate. However, when the treaty began to fall apart, Sauvage found himself a prisoner of the Virginians. He negotiated with the Virginian General Byrd for the restoration of democracy in the Métis nation, and with a renewed hopeful outlook prepared for the 1940 elections.
Unfortunately for Sauvage, the Virginians interfered heavily with the elections, banning all of the parties they found objectionable- which were all of the parties, except for the new Parti Travailleur (Workers Party) which Sauvage had founded in response to the forced dissolution of the Parti Syndiqué. Outrage at the foreign meddling was particularly strong in the Métis right, who activated the militias they had been gathering for the previous half-decade and attempt to launch a coup against the present authority. General Alain Picard, the highest-ranking surviving officer of the Métis army, recalled the remnants of the old Syndicalist forces and came to the protection of his leader, Serge Sauvage, who he feared the Nationalists would kill in response to perceived collaboration with the occupiers. An underground war broke out between the two Métis factions, while General Byrd proceeded to tighten his leash on Sauvage, essentially confining the man to house arrest while using the respected Syndicalists name to justify his continued acts of governance to the population.
As the Métis became increasingly aware of and angry at the blatant puppetry in their government, they began to turn to alternate sources of authority. The Unions struggled to both support the population and keep the economy alive, while the National Militias and Syndicalist Army worked to provide protection and security for the populace, along with whatever amenities they could scrounge together.
The National Militias continued to provide the largest amount of resistance to the Virginians due to their large size, but their decentralized and disparate natures allowed the much smaller and better-trained Syndicalist Army to hold its own. A truce of sorts existed between the two ideologically opposed forces, for the purposes of expelling the Virginians, although both sides were very prepared to turn on each other the moment the foreign presence withdrew. For nearly a decade following 1940, the Métis people would be torn apart by this 3-way civil war, which would have a horrible transformative effect on the national psyche.
Alain Picard experienced a great boon when the Virginians decided to go on the offensive against the National Militias, making several strategic strikes which briefly incapacitated his rivals. The Syndicalist Army briefly superseded the Militias in terms of influence among the Métis people, but time was not on Picards side. The National Militias were very quickly reconstituted, and this time under the central leadership of Martin LaTournier, under whose command the organization would grow rapidly.
Several years of internecine warfare passed, all without significant advances by any of the forces. The longer Sauvage remained as a powerless political prisoner, the less influence his movement wielded. Meanwhile, the depredations of war jaded and embittered the Métis populace. Martin LaTournier was quick and efficient in directing their anger towards a variety of useful targets, and towards discrediting his rivals. The Syndicalist Army experienced an ever-increasing desertion rate, with many defectors joining the National Militias, and the country slid further and further into ruin.
By 1948, the situation in the lands of the Métis was dire for all involved. Alain Picard, the last remaining figure of the old Syndicates authority, was a lame duck, a General without an army. Martin LaTournier, at the peak of his influence, had been killed in an air raid, the Virginians were experiencing an increasing public opposition to their ongoing occupation, and the country itself was horribly scarred, by over a decade of civil war, gassing and occupation. It is debateable at which point one groups will broke first. The most obvious candidate would be the Beausejour Raid on June 14, 1948, where Militia commanded by Jean-Manuel Desjardins, LaTourniers successor, destroyed several Virginian aircraft and many more infantry. Facing an enemy which had simply lost too much to care about self-preservation and reason, the Virginians finally broke out of the bloody deadlock, announcing their intentions to withdraw in 1949. Desjardins took the initiative to respond, working vigorously to establish himself and the National Militias as the new order of the Métis Government.
On February 9 of 1949, a haggard, badly ill and skeletally thin Serge Sauvage, weakened by his long confinement and numerous hunger strikes, was released, to the elation of the Métis population. Despite accusations of collaboration with the Virginians and the fact that he was indirectly responsible for all of the suffering the population had suffered, it remained the general view that he had done the best any man could have hoped to do against a vindictive, evil and powerful force. Desjardins made note of Sauvages popularity, and although he would have preferred to execute Sauvage, deigned to meet with the previous leader of the Métis to discuss the future and reconstruction of the nation.
Meanwhile, as March rolled in General Alain Picard re-emerged from obscurity, at the head of a partially reconstituted Syndicalist army. Desjardins was quick to respond with military force, with a gunfight just outside of Winnipeg killing several Virginian soldiers, prompting Governor-General Byrd to accelerate his withdrawal plans. Sauvage called for peace between the Métis, and shortly thereafter announced his support for Desjardins proposal for a resumption of democracy. Picard, knowing that an election at this point would almost certainly give a victory to his longtime enemies, openly questioned Sauvages sanity and awareness of the Métis situation after spending so much time separated from the outside world. Serge Sauvage maintained his stance, and Picard eventually backed down, and under pressure from Jean-Manuel Desjardins, left the country for asylum in Nouvelle-France.
As spring advanced, Desjardins began to speak about his reconstruction plans, revealing a hybridization of Sauvages syndicalist system with his own nationalist plans and philosophies. The apparent betrayal of his roots caused a great deal of consternation amongst his supporters, and outright rebellion in the peripheries of the National Militias. The simple military power of Desjardins forces crushed some of these movements, and convinced the majority to back down. Throughout the remainder of the year, Desjardins continued to secure the nation, and his place in it, while Serge Sauvage suffered from various complications to his malnutrition while incarcerated, and began to appear less in public.
On August 3, 1949, the last Virginian soldiers vacated Métis territory, prompting a celebration from Jean-Manuel Desjardins. The victory was about as hollow and pyrrhic as one could achieve, but a small celebration of a new beginning occurred nonetheless.
On January 5, 1950, Chef des Milices Jean-Manuel Desjardins was democratically elected as the new Métis leader. As he had promised and intended, the 2nd Métis Republic, as the Virginians had established the Sauvage Puppet Government, was dissolved. Replacing it was lUnion Nationale de la Métis (National Union of the Métis).
