“Remember, reconciliation is yours to achieve. We owe it to each other to build a Canada based on our shared future, a future of healing and trust.” –Justice Murray Sinclair

There is a strong case to be made that the Honourable Murray Sinclair was the most important and consequential Indigenous person of his generation in Canada.

Sinclair’s leadership of the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation and the coinciding report radically changed how Canadians grapple with our country’s horrific treatment of Indigenous Peoples and the inter-generational impacts of the residential school system that continue today.

In the early 1990s, Sinclair was co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry after the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the police shooting of Indigenous leader J.J. Harper. The report he co-authored ultimately led to Manitoba’s devolution of child welfare services to Indigenous leadership. This challenging, but necessary transformation significantly changed the work of many MGEU members and the Manitobans they serve.

As Justice, Sinclair oversaw the five-year Manitoba Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest after 12 children died at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre in 1994. This inquest resulted in a new approach to medical error and patient safety.

A lawyer and steadfast advocate for Indigenous Peoples, Sinclair was the first Aboriginal judge in Manitoba and the first Indigenous person appointed as a justice to the Court of King’s Bench.

As the tributes poured in this week, it is clear that he leaves a lasting legacy. This legacy provides us all with direction on how to continue the important, necessary work of learning the truth about this country’s treatment of Indigenous people and the ways we can move towards reconciliation.

The MGEU is familiar with this legacy in the form of his son, Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, who has carried on his father’s work on Truth and Reconciliation. Board members and staff of MGEU have been enriched by the time, knowledge and wisdom that Niigaan has shared with us.

MGEU offers our deepest condolences to Sinclair’s family on his passing. Sinclair’s leadership, wisdom and commitment to justice will be deeply missed and his legacy deserves to be honoured by all Manitobans and Canadians.

As a tribute to this remarkable man, and a way to continue the work he cherished, the MGEU is making a $25,000 donation to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Sinclair illuminated a path for Canadians to take to understand our past and create a present and future where Indigenous Peoples in Canada thrive. It is up to each of us to take up the Calls to Action and make that vision a reality.

Miigwech, Mazina Giizhik. We will follow the path you have laid out.

“The road we travel is equal in importance to the destination we seek. There are no shortcuts. When it comes to Truth and Reconciliation, we are forced to go the distance.” –Justice Murray Sinclair

Photo: "Murray Sinclair at Shingwauk 2015 Gathering" by Archkris is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.