Canada remembers Murray Sinclair, aboriginal judge and member of parliament | Indigenous Rights Issues
Relatives, friends and leaders said Sinclair, who died this week aged 73, and his legacy ‘will never be forgotten’.
Canada is holding a national memorial for Murray Sinclair, the trailblazing Aboriginal judge and MP who led the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the abuse of Aboriginal children in residential schools.
The public event on Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg, central Canada, comes days after Sinclair died on November 4 at the age of 73.
“Few people shaped this country the way my father did, and few people can say they changed the course of this country the way my father did – to put us on a better path,” said his son Niigaan Sinclair during the meeting. the beginning of the memorial.
“All of us: Natives, Canadians, newcomers, everyone whether you’re new to this place or whether you’ve been here a long time, from the beginning, we’ve all been touched by him in some way.”
Sinclair, an Anishinaabe lawyer and member of parliament and a member of the Peguis First Nation, was the first Aboriginal judge in Manitoba and the second in Canada.
As chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Sinclair organized hundreds of hearings across Canada to hear directly from survivors of the country’s residential school system.
Society’s Statement on the Passing of the Honorable Murray Sinclair. pic.twitter.com/inhhyamNKt
— First Nations Caring Society (@CaringSociety) November 4, 2024
From the late 1800s until 1996, Canada forcibly removed an estimated 150,000 aboriginal children from their families and forced them into institutions. They were forced to cut their hair, forbidden to speak their native language, and many were physically and sexually abused.
“The residential school system established for Aboriginal Canadians in the nineteenth century is one of the worst, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history,” Sinclair wrote in the TRC’s final report.
“It is clear that residential schools were an important part of the Canadian government’s policy of genocide.”
Mary Simon, Canada’s first indigenous governor, described Sinclair during Sunday’s memorial service as “a voice of truth, justice and healing”.
He said he “has a heart that is brave enough to expose injustice, but generous enough to make everyone around him feel welcome and important”.
Other Indigenous leaders and advocates across Canada have also spent the past week remembering Sinclair for his unwavering commitment to confronting systemic racism against Indigenous peoples.
“One of the main things he said is that reconciliation is not a job that should be done by survivors. Real reconciliation, he said, must also include institutional change,” said Alvin Fiddler, chief executive of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) in northern Ontario, in a statement after Sinclair’s death.
“Reconciliation, he taught us, is ours to achieve,” said Fiddler.
“The task before us is difficult, but we believe that we owe it to each other to build a country based on a harmonious future of coexistence and mutual trust. Murray encouraged us to walk the path towards reconciliation. Accepting this responsibility is a fitting way to honor his legacy.”
Pam Palmater, chair of Aboriginal Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, said Sinclair was someone who “never stopped teaching Canadians… and making sure we don’t forget”.
In an interview with CBC News on Sunday, Palmater noted that Sinclair “didn’t just run the TRC”; he was involved in many other projects, including an investigation into child deaths in Manitoba and an investigation into the police department in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
“He will never be forgotten. He is one of those people where his legacy lives on,” said Palmater. “His impact will be felt for decades to come.”
