Sinclair travelled the country for six years hearing the stories of survivors of residential schools for the commission.

By Joy SpearChief-MorrisOttawa Bureau

Toronto Star: OTTAWA—Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, died surrounded by family on Monday in Winnipeg at age 73.

“The impact of our dad’s work reached far across the country and the world. From Residential School Survivors, to law students, to those who sat across from him in a courtroom, he was always known as an exceptional listener who treated everyone with dignity and respect,” said Sinclair’s family in a statement.

“We know that stories of his kindness, generosity, and fairness will circulate for generations to come.”

Sinclair had been in poor health in recent years and had been battling congestive heart failure.

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Deborah Dundas: Murray Sinclair led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He wants Canada to ask itself these four questions

Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge and the second in Canada, Sinclair lived a life dedicated to public service. An Anishinaabe leader in the justice system, his legacy will have a lasting impact felt by Indigenous people.

He is known best for his work in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he served as chair alongside Chief Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson. Their final report documented the stories and legacies of survivors of Canada’s Indian residential schools, and its 94 calls to action have become a road map for Canada on proceeding toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

He is survived by his five children and several grandchildren. His wife, Katherine, died in June.

Reactions to Sinclair’s death quickly spread across the country.

In the Ontario legislature Monday morning, NDP member Sol Mamakwa broke the news to his colleagues to audible gasps of shock from members of all parties. A moment of silence was held.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pay tribute to the life of Murray Sinclair, former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sinclair died November 4, 2024 at the age of 73. (Nov. 4, 2024 / The Canadian Press)

The House of Commons followed suit with many members issuing their own statements on the late Justice’s passing, including Minister of Crown Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree, who called Sinclair a “Canadian icon.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his condolences on X, formerly Twitter, stating, in part: ” With his passing, Canada has lost a giant — a brilliant legal mind, a champion of Indigenous rights, and a trusted leader on our journey of Reconciliation.”

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a friend and prominent leader in Canada who championed human rights, justice and truth,” Governor General Mary Simon said in a statement.

“A kind, wise and generous soul, he had an exceptional ability to inspire people and to touch hearts.

A sacred fire was lit outside the Manitoba Legislative Building on Monday for members of the public who wished to make offerings of tobacco and pay their respects.

Early life and career

Born Calvin Murray Sinclair in Selkirk, Man., on Jan. 24, 1951, on the former St. Peter’s Indian Reservation, Sinclair was a member of the Peguis First Nation. His name in Ojibwe, Mazina Giizhik, means “the one who speaks of pictures in the sky.”

Sinclair’s mother died when he was one, and he was raised by his grandparents. He graduated from high school as valedictorian and  later studied sociology and history at the University of Winnipeg before pursuing a law degree. 

For 25 years working in the justice system, Sinclair focused on civil and criminal litigation as well as Indigenous and human rights law.

In March 1988, he was appointed associate chief judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba. He would serve as a judge in the province until 2016.

That same year, Sinclair was asked to serve as co-commissioner of the Public Inquiry into the Administration of Justice and Aboriginal Peoples of Manitoba with Associate Chief Justice Al Hamilton. Their study produced almost 300 recommendations that had a profound impact on Canada’s justice system. A few years later, Sinclair would also direct the Manitoba Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest into the death of 12 children at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre in 1994.

“It’s no coincidence that at virtually the exact same time I was appointed to Manitoba’s court in March 1988, Indigenous leader John Joseph “J.J.” Harper was shot by Winnipeg police Const. Robert Cross,” Sinclair told the Star’s Deborah Dundas in an interview in September. The death of Joseph was one cause of the public inquiry he conducted with Hamilton.

“There is still much work to do; Canada is still infected with a great deal of racism that influences policy and attitudes and undermines attempts for change — but we need to see that the country has learned some things and needs to continue on this path.” 

The Aboriginal justice inquiry is the first time Cindy Blackstock had heard of the Justice. The Gitxsan activist and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada would go on to know and work with the former senator over the next several decades.

“Murray was often first, but that wasn’t the reason he did things. He became a first so that we can become the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth,” Blackstock said.

“Murray was always a beacon of justice, of dignity and hope, and was laser focused on the responsibilities that we had to this generation of children and all generations of children to follow.”

Beyond his career in justice, Sinclair also served as a cultural leader in the Anishinaabe community alongside his wife and life partner, Katherine Morrisseau-Sinclair, an Anishinaabek woman, artist and educator from Ste. Rose du Lac, Man., for over 40 years. 

Blackstock said Sinclair and his family were always at community events and that “his family has been so incredibly generous, not only in sharing Murray with all of us, but they all follow the example he and Katherine put down for them by really evolving themselves in the world in a way that brings light and justice to everyone.

“He set a legacy in his own family and his own community, and he inspired one in each of us who are lucky enough to know him and many who didn’t know him but were inspired by his example.”

Sinclair was a member of the fish-clan and an Ojibwe speaker. He and Morrisseau-Sinclair were deeply involved as spiritual leaders, both Road Chiefs of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge, as well as community advocates. Sinclair was also a second degree member of the Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

In 2009, Sinclair took on his most notable role as head commissioner of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission was tasked with documenting the abuse and cultural genocide administered by the federal government and church bodies during the 150 years of Canada’s Indian residential school system. Nearly 4,000 Indigenous children are recorded to have died at the schools, and experts say the numbers could be thousands higher.

The commission began a year after then Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered his apology on behalf of the federal government for Canada’s role in the schools, and was part of the 2007 final settlement from the class-action lawsuit brought by the Assembly of First Nations and Indian Residential School Survivors.

For six years, Sinclair and his co-chairs travelled the country listening to testimonies of more than 6,500 survivors.

In 2015, the commission released its landmark final report and 94 “Calls to Action.”  

“As commissioners, we, and those who accompanied us, have been touched by all that we have witnessed, all that we have heard, and all that has been shared with us and with the rest of Canada,” Sinclair said at the closing ceremony in December 2015.

Upon receiving the report, Trudeau stated the government’s commitment to fully implementing the calls to action.

As of 2023, only 13 of the 94 calls are reported to have been fully implemented. 

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said Sinclair has been a “household name for First Nations” her entire life.

Speaking to the Star on Monday, she continued, “This year, as we look ahead and we focus on the 10th year anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I wish he could have stayed with us longer to commemorate that and remind Canadians that we have a lot of work to do on the calls to action and the calls to justice.”

Upon news of his death, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation released a statement that called Sinclair “forever the mediator and negotiator who owned a powerful voice as one of the most prolific leaders in this land.”

‘A council of Elders’

In April 2016, Sinclair was appointed by Trudeau to the Senate, the 16th Indigenous person to be appointment to the institution, which Sinclair would later refer to as “a council of Elders.” 

While in the Senate, Sinclair also returned to his law career in 2020, joining Cochrane Saxberg LLP in Winnipeg, the largest Indigenous law firm in Manitoba.

Sinclair retired from the Senate in January 2021, going on to accept a position as Queen’s University’s 15th — and first Indigenous — chancellor. In 2022, Sinclair was invested as a companion of the Order of Canada for dedicating his life to “truth, justice and reconciliation” and for championing Indigenous Peoples’ rights and freedoms.

He stepped down from that role this past June, staying on at Queen’s as the special adviser to the principal on reconciliation.

In September, Sinclair published his memoir, “Who We Are: Four Questions For a Life and a Nation,” centred around Indigenous ways of knowing as well as Canada’s future with reconciliation.

“I framed my story as a pursuit of trying to understand myself as an Indigenous person in Canada while at the same time inviting readers to consider how, by asking their own four questions, they will realize their creation story intersects with mine,” Sinclair told Dundas.

“Together, we are one beautiful — albeit complicated — story.”

Sinclair has received multiple honours for his work, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1994, Manitoba Bar Association’s Equality Award in 2001 and Distinguished Service Award in 2016, as well as several honourary degrees.

He has also been named to the Order of Manitoba in 2024 and named a recipient of the Meritorious Service Cross in 2017.

“It will be a long time before our nation produces another person the calibre of Murray Sinclair,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew — the first First Nations to hold the position in the province — said in a statement.

“He showed us there is no reconciliation without truth. We should hold dear in our hearts his words that our nation is on the cusp of a great new era and we must all ‘dare to live greatly together.’”

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to The Murray Sinclair Memorial Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation, to “prioritize Indigenous women, children, families, and Survivors.”

With report from Robert Benzie.

Joy SpearChief-Morris is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics and Indigenous issues for the Star. Reach her via email: jspearchiefmorris@thestar.ca