outspoken advocate on their behalf and this combined with being an Irish Catholic caused him great difficulties with the Ontario Orange Order influenced Canadian authorities both civil and military and also with the Wesleyan Church|Wesleyan Methodists. Around that time, there were groups of Irish Republicans (mainly Catholic) living in the United States who twice unsuccessfully attempted to invade Canada. These people were known as "Fenians" in Canada. Although Scollen, as an Irish patriot, was sympathetic to their cause, he was strongly against the use of violence. The same applied to the Metis leader Louis Riel whom Scollen also counseled against using such methods. In December 1882, he was appointed to parish duties in St Joachim, Edmonton but was stricken by cholera in August 1883. On recovery, he returned to St Albert, ministering and traveling among the local Cree native peoples again. In November 1884, along with Father Gabillion, he re-established a mission to the Cree people at Bears' Hill called Notre Dame de la Sept Douleurs (now Maskwacis, previously called Hobbema, near Edmonton) despite very aggressive opposition from the Methodists who were already firmly established there. During the "1885 North West Rebellion", at the request of the Lt-Governor Edgar Dewdney, he dissuaded the Cree Chief, Bobtail, from joining the hostilities. Some of the younger men had looted the nearby Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Battle River but he was able to calm the situation, get them to close their war camp, to return most of the stolen items and persuaded the Canadian Militia not to take punitive action against the people. Scollen had remained at his post even though he was aware that two of his fellow Oblate priests, Fathers Felix Marchand and Leon Farfard, had been murdered (in the nearby Frog Lake Massacre, by the young Plains Cree warriors of Mistahi-maskwa Big Bear), and all of the white people apart from a Mr Taylor, including the Indian Department officials and his longtime antagonists, the local Methodist missionaries, had fled from his area. From around 1880, his relationship with the Oblate hierarchy, but not his fellow missionaries, had been becoming strained. His mental health had deteriorated and his behaviour had become erratic. He decided to become a secular priest and eventually resigned from the Oblates in July 1885. He was destitute and asked the Canadian government for help. They granted him 150 dollars in recognition of his work at