Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 06, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A4 A 4 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2013 TOP NEWS winnipegfreepress. com P O L O P A R K S H O P P I N G C E N T R E 2 0 4 . 7 8 6 . 2 3 6 8 * Not all merchandise on sale. Alterations extra on sale shirts and merchandise reduced by 50% or greater. Last chance! Further markdowns have been taken online and throughout our stores. Shop now for best selection and savings. 40- 60% * OFF ALL SALE MERCHANDISE Harry's Final Markdowns ( Sale Ends Sunday.) M ILLBROOK, Ont. - Members of a Royal Canadian Legion branch in Ontario say they don't want to press charges against a M�tis man who admitted stealing the Bell of Batoche more than 20 years ago, but they still want medals they say disappeared at the same time returned. " The bell is back where it rightfully belongs. It belongs to the M�tis," said Dan Maebrae, who was the sergeant- atarms at the Millbrook legion when the bell was stolen in 1991. The historic bell was originally looted in 1885 from a church in Batoche, Sask., by troops suppressing the Northwest Rebellion led by Louis Riel. It was brought east to the town of Millbrook and was in the community's fire hall for decades before ending up at the legion. After the theft in 1991, the bell's whereabouts remained a mystery until BillyJo Delaronde, a M�tis man from Manitoba, confessed to taking it and presented it to the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Prince Albert in Batoche last month. Maebrae, who recalls drinking with Delaronde and other M�tis men at the Millbrook legion before the theft, said three medals were with the bell. Known as the McCorry medals after Millbrook man and former sergeant Fred McCorry, they had been presented to residents who were soldiers in the campaign to suppress the Northwest Rebellion. Those medals belong in Millbrook, Maebrae said. " They're part of the legion history. This man was a military man and it's military history. That's what the legion is about." Nobody admits to having the medals and police do not appear to be investigating the 1991 theft any longer. Mounties in red serge were present when Delaronde presented the bell in Batoche, but a spokesman for the RCMP in Saskatchewan said because the case originated in Ontario, it would be up to police there to lay charges. The Ontario Provincial Police investigated the original theft, but charges appear unlikely. " There is no active investigation," OPP spokesman Craig White said recently. Robert Winslow is the director of a theatre company in Millbrook and he researched the bell for a play he wrote in 2000. He said the medals were presented to McCorry and members of his family who were all members of the Midland Battalion of the Northwest Field Force. Winslow, who suggested the bell is actually from Frog Lake, Alta., not Batoche, said McCorry was a fiery character who fought off raids by the Fenian brotherhood from the United States in 1866. McCorry and his nephews were the soldiers who brought the bell back, Winslow continued, and one of the nephews was a member of the detail that escorted Riel from Batoche to Regina, where the rebel leader was hanged for treason. Winslow said there is a newspaper account of McCorry fighting off an attempt by a Conservative MP to retrieve the bell from Millbrook on behalf of a Catholic bishop. According to the newspaper story, McCorry threatened to blast the MP with his gun if he tried to take the bell from Millbrook. Delaronde, reached at his home in Dauphin, Man., said he doesn't know anything about the medals. " I recall medals being on the wall," he said of the room at the legion where the bell was displayed. " If there are any medals, I'll make some inquiries." According to Delaronde and Maebrae, Delaronde and several other men arrived at the legion in 1991 and engaged in a cordial drinking session with members. The group asked to see the bell and Maebrae said he happily showed it to them. Delaronde told the festival in Batoche he and his companions pretended to spill tobacco on the floor and made off with the bell when legion members went to get a broom. But he now says he actually returned to the legion several nights later, pried open a door and made off with the bell. Gary Floyd Guiboche, who is serving time in prison for killing his wife, has said that he was with Delaronde that night. " We saw some other traditional stuff and we looked at each other and took that, too. There was no alarm system, just wires set up, but it was a fake system," Guiboche told the Winnipeg Free Press in an interview from Stony Mountain penitentiary. Tony Belcourt, who was part of the group that visited the legion with Delaronde, said the medals were in a display case with the bell. He couldn't say if they were still there when Delaronde returned later and stole the bell. " I was not there," Belcourt said of the theft. " BillyJo said he was there." Dave Penney, a former Millbrook legion president, said the president of the M�tis Nation of Saskatchewan contacted him in 2010 and said he had an idea where one of the medals might be. Penney said Robert Doucette told him he didn't know where the bell was, but said he was hoping to arrange a reconciliation ceremony with the legion over the way the bell was taken. Penney said he checked with the OPP to make sure Doucette wouldn't face charges. But the deal fell apart when an RCMP officer called and asked a lot of questions. Penney said he can't remember the Mountie's name or where he was from, but he said it convinced him to call off the plan. " I phoned Rob and told him, ' Don't come to Ontario.' " Delaronde said he hopes the medals are out there somewhere. - The Canadian Press Ontario legion just wants medals back Bell of Batoche ' belongs to M�tis' By Rob Drinkwater ' They're part of the legion history. This man was a military man and it's military history' - Dan Maebrae, former sergeant- at- arms at the Millbrook legion, of medals taken at the same time as the Bell of Batoche LIAM RICHARDS / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES The Bell of Batoche is displayed in Batoche, Sask., last month. It was stolen from a Millbrook, Ont., legion in 1991. A_ 04_ Aug- 06- 13_ FP_ 01. indd A4 8/ 5/ 13 9: 37: 38 PM ;