Murray Sinclair dead at 73: Former senator and TRC commissioner remembered as champion for Indigenous rights

Murray Sinclair, the Anishinaabe senator and renowned Manitoba lawyer who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has died at age 73.

Sinclair died at a Winnipeg hospital early Monday morning “peacefully and surrounded by love,” his family said in a statement.

“Mazina Giizhik (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) committed his life in service to the people: creating change, revealing truth, and leading with fairness throughout his career,” the statement said.

“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.

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

WATCH | Murray Sinclair forged the path for reconciliation in Canada: 

Murray Sinclair, who started as a lawyer and became the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and later a Senator and commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has died at 73.

Governor General Mary Simon and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the dignitaries paying tribute to Sinclair on Monday.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a friend and prominent leader in Canada who championed human rights, justice and truth,” Simon said in a media statement. “He leaves behind an invaluable legacy of bringing to light the stories of thousands of residential schools survivors.

“In 2022, I had the privilege to invest Senator Sinclair as Companion of the Order of Canada for his life’s work. A kind, wise and generous soul, he had an exceptional ability to inspire people and to touch hearts.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Whit and I offer our deepest condolences to the Sinclair family, who grieve the loss of a father and grandfather. As a nation, let us honour his memory and sacrifice by forging ahead on the path of reconciliation.”

In his own statement, Trudeau said Sinclair dedicated his life to repairing Canada’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples.

“Canada has lost a giant — a brilliant legal mind, a champion of Indigenous rights and a trusted leader on our journey of reconciliation,” Trudeau said. “As the chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he challenged us to confront the darkest parts of our history — because he believed we could learn from them, and be better for it.

“He listened to residential school survivors and he made sure Canada heard their stories. He advocated for the right of Indigenous students to go to school in their language and culture. And he was kind, patient and understanding to people like me, who had a lot to learn. ‘Education got us into this mess,’ he said. ‘Education will get us out.'”

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told CBC News she spoke with Sinclair’s family on Monday morning.

“His work has been groundbreaking for First Nations and Canadians alike,” she said, adding that she believes Sinclair will be remembered as a “trailblazer” who changed the trajectory for First Nations.

“I thank him for his work and his wisdom, his guidance and his strength…. He’s left us a road map to try and follow. We have a lot of work to do, and we have to do that together.”

Raised by Cree grandfather and Ojibway grandmother

Sinclair was born on Jan. 24, 1951, just north of Selkirk on what used to be the St. Peter’s reserve.

A member of the Peguis First Nation, he was raised by his Cree grandfather Jim Sinclair and his Ojibway grandmother Catherine Sinclair after his mother died of a stroke. Both of his grandparents were required to go to the residential school system.

Sinclair told the Gladue Community Justice Forum in 2021 that the first language he spoke at home was Cree. Just before starting school, he said, his grandmother told him he would have to stop speaking the language both inside and outside the home.

“I grew up in a family and during a time in which we were raised to deny our Aboriginality, our identity as Aboriginal people,” he said.

“We were raised, in fact, to believe that nothing that our culture offered us or our people, offered us as a people, had any merit anymore. We were raised to believe, in fact, that it was our obligation, in fact it was our responsibility, it was our problem, to overcome our Indianness.”

Sinclair was a strong student and skipped two grades on his way to graduating from Selkirk Collegiate, a public high school, as valedictorian and athlete of the year in 1968. He attended the University of Manitoba for two years but postponed his studies to help care for his ailing grandmother.

Once back home, Sinclair started working with the Selkirk Friendship Centre, helping to provide services to First Nations people living off-reserve. By 1971, he’d become regional vice-president of the Manitoba Métis Federation. 

Sinclair said in 2021 his work in Selkirk drove him to help Indigenous people who were being treated unfairly under the law and overrepresented in the justice system.

“I knew that the way things were, were not the way things should be,” he said.

Law career started with political ambitions

Returning to his studies in 1976, Sinclair attended the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba and again distinguished himself academically by winning the A.J. Christie Prize in civil litigation. He graduated in 1979 and was called to the bar in 1980.

Reflecting years later on his early legal career, Sinclair said he “loved the courtroom” and would attend court whenever he could, even when he wasn’t involved in a trial.

“My ambitions for my career lay primarily in the field of politics. When I went to law school, it was to be a politician,” he said in 2021.

But he became disillusioned with the justice system. On one occasion early in his career, a judge mistook him for the defendant and asked him to state the charges against him.

Believing justice for Indigenous people could not be found in Canada’s courts, Sinclair considered quitting law and abandoning his political ambitions.

Sinclair said his wife convinced him to ask his community for advice before quitting. He later recalled that a long conversation with an elder from his community convinced him to reconnect with his Indigenous identity and try again.

After years spent crafting a reputation for balancing Canadian law with Indigenous legal systems, Sinclair became an associate chief judge on the Provincial Court of Manitoba at the age of 37. He was the province’s first Indigenous judge and only Canada’s second. Sinclair was appointed to the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba in 2001.

WATCH | When Sinclair became Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge in 1988: 

In 1988, Murray Sinclair became an associate chief judge of the Manitoba Provincial Court — the second Indigenous person in Canada to be appointed to the bench and the first in Manitoba.

In a 2019 interview with the Manitoba Law Review, Sinclair said that judges often “went overboard” and that “there was a better way to do sentencing.”

“When the associate chief judge position was rolled into my appointment,” he added, “I thought in that capacity I could help change the system to ensure that it did address a more appealing approach in sentencing.”

Sinclair told the review that part of his work as co-commissioner of Manitoba’s 1988 Aboriginal Justice Inquiry was to highlight the need to take Indigenous offenders’ history into account when sentencing.

That discussion, he said, ultimately led to the establishment of the Gladue principles in 1996, which required courts to consider the backgrounds of Indigenous offenders and alternatives to prison when sentencing.

Appointed chief commissioner of TRC in 2009

Sinclair went on to preside over the province’s Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest before accepting the position of chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2009.

The commission’s 2015 final report documented the history and legacy of Canada’s residential school system across six volumes and more than two million words.

WATCH | ‘We would hold our children and grandchildren closer’:

Chair Justice Murray Sinclair speaks about how the stories of residential schools survivors touched the commissioners of the TRC and Canadians.

After visiting more than 300 communities and speaking to more than 7,000 Indigenous men and women over a six-year period, the commission came to the conclusion that Canada had engaged in acts of “cultural genocide.”

“For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments, ignore Aboriginal rights, terminate the Treaties and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada,” the opening paragraph of the final report said.

“The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy.”

On the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gov. Gen. David Johnston appointed Sinclair to the Senate in 2016, making him Canada’s 16th Indigenous senator.

In 2017, Sinclair led an investigation into the Thunder Bay Police Services Board to probe claims of systemic racism in the force.

After retiring from the Senate in 2021, Sinclair was appointed chancellor of Queen’s University, a position he held until June 30, 2024, when his appointment ended.

WATCH | Reconciliation ‘not a one-day affair,’ says Sinclair: 

Murray Sinclair, the former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, says Canada must focus on reconciliation beyond the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Sinclair received many awards over his long career as a jurist and public official, including the Meritorious Service Cross and the Order of Manitoba. He was also named a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Sinclair and his wife, Katherine Morrisseau-Sinclair, have five children — Misko, Niigaan, Dene, Gazheek and Jessica — as well as three grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking those who are able to donate to The Murray Sinclair Memorial Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation.

WATCH | Trudeau reflects on passing of Murray Sinclair

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reflects on the life of Murray Sinclair, the Anishinaabe senator and renowned Manitoba lawyer who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sinclair has died at age 73.

For those wishing to pay respects in person, a sacred fire to help guide his spirit home has been lit outside the Manitoba Legislative Building, the family said in a statement.

“Everyone is welcome to visit his sacred fire to make an offering of tobacco and send him your best wishes,” the statement said.

The family is asking others across the country not to light any other fires for him out of respect for his journey.