This was a scandal on the edge of Canada, concerning allegations of adultery against a Metis woman: class, race, and sex. The chap who resolved this, Eden Colvile, was the son of Andrew Colville, who noisily disparaged Robert Wedderburn (radical)'s claim to kinship. Eden treated the Metis Sarah Macleod and her Scottish husband John Ballenden sympathetically, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Eden was the nephew (or great-nephew?) of John Wedderburn of Ballendean, sued by Joseph Knight (slave). So, was Eden Colville trying to atone? or at least differentiate himself from his relatives?