Calvin Murray Sinclair, (born Mizanay (Mizhana) Gheezhik; January 24, 1951) is a former member of the Canadian Senate and
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
lawyer who served as chairman of the
Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC; french: Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada []) was a truth and reconciliation commission active in Canada from 2008 to 2015, organized by the parties of the Indian Residen ...
from 2009 to 2015. He previously served as a judge in
Manitoba
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from 1988 to 2009, being the first Indigenous judge appointed in the province. Sinclair was appointed to the Senate of Canada on April 2, 2016. In November 2020, he announced his retirement from the Senate effective January 31, 2021.
Queen's University announced the appointment of Sinclair as the 15th chancellor, succeeding Jim Leech. He assumed the role on July 1, 2021.
Early life
Calvin Murray Sinclair was born on January 24, 1951 and raised on the former St. Peter's Indian Reserve in the Selkirk area north of
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
, Manitoba. His parents were Henry and Florence (née Mason) Sinclair. His siblings were Richard, Henry Jr. (Buddy) and Dianne. An older sister had died in infancy. Their mother, Florence, died in April 1952 following a stroke, and they were raised by their grandparents Jim and Catherine Sinclair in St. Peter's.
After graduating from high school (Selkirk Collegiate Institute) as class
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
and Athlete of the Year in 1968, Sinclair attended the University of Manitoba's School of Physical Education, but left before graduating to take care of his ailing grandmother after his grandfather died in 1970. He then worked at the Selkirk Friendship Centre as an administrator and youth worker and was elected vice president of the Manitoba Metis Federation for the Interlake Region in 1971. In 1972, he went to work for
Howard Pawley
Howard Russell Pawley (November 21, 1934 – December 30, 2015) was a Canadian politician and professor who was the 18th premier of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988. Prior to his premiership, Pawley served in various ministerial positions after his ...
Q.C., who was at that time the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Selkirk and the
Attorney General of Manitoba
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, as his executive assistant.
In 1976, Sinclair continued his academic career at the
University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gra ...
, studying sociology and history. He then attended law school at the Faculty of Law at the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.
Sinclair also spent his teenage years as an air cadet with #6 Jim Whitecross
Royal Canadian Air Cadet
The Royal Canadian Air Cadets (french: Cadets de l'Aviation royale du Canada) is a Canadian national youth program for young individuals aged 12 to 18. Under the authority of the National Defence Act, the program is administered by the Canadian F ...
Squadron, attaining the rank of warrant officer first class. As an air cadet he was awarded the Warren Spohn Trophy for outstanding leadership, after earning top marks at the Air Cadet Leadership Training Program in Camp Borden, Ontario. After cadets, he continued his involvement as an instructor with the squadron.
Legal career
He was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1980. During the course of his legal practice, Senator Sinclair practised primarily in the fields of
Civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
and Criminal Litigation Human Rights law, and Indigenous Law. He represented a cross-section of clients but was known for his representation of Aboriginal people and his knowledge of Aboriginal legal issues, having taught courses on Aboriginal People and the Law in the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba since 1981. Senator Sinclair also served as legal counsel for the First Nations of Manitoba, representing them in the areas of land claims, legislative initiatives, funding negotiations and the negotiation of Child Welfare Agreements following the release of the Kimelman Report into Child Welfare in Manitoba. Senator Sinclair has acted as legal counsel for the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. He has also been an adjunct professor of law and an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Provincial Court of Manitoba
The Provincial Court of Manitoba (french: Cour provinciale du Manitoba) is the lower trial court of the Province of Manitoba. It has mainly a criminal jurisdiction, as well as limited concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of King's Bench in m ...
in March 1988, becoming the first Aboriginal judge in the province.
As associate chief judge, Senator Sinclair was appointed co-commissioner, along with Court of Queen's Bench Associate Chief Justice A. C. Hamilton, of Manitoba's Public Inquiry into the Administration of Justice and Aboriginal People (The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry). The AJI report was an extensive study of issues plaguing the relationship between Aboriginal people in Manitoba and the justice system and has had a significant impact on law and legal policy in Canada. It was referred to in the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples of Canada (RCAP) as well as by the
Canadian Bar Association
The Canadian Bar Association (CBA), or Association du barreau canadien (ABC) in French, represents over 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada.
History
The Association's first Annual Meeting was he ...
in its report on Aboriginal People and the law of Canada.
In November 2000, Senator Sinclair completed the "Report of the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest," a study into the deaths of twelve children in the pediatric cardiac surgery program of the HSC (Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre) in 1994. That report led to significant changes in pediatric cardiac surgery in Manitoba and the study of medical and systemic errors in Canada.
He was appointed to the
Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba
The Court of King's Bench of Manitoba (french: Cour du Banc du Roi du Manitoba)—or the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba, depending on the monarch—is the superior court of the Canadian province of Manitoba.
The court is divided into two d ...
in January 2001 and is the province's first Aboriginal person to be appointed a judge on that court. While a judge of that court, Justice Sinclair was asked to chair Canada's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
(TRC), a request he initially declined due to the expected emotional toll. However, when the initial chair of the TRC resigned and the other commissioners were replaced, Senator Sinclair was asked, and agreed, to reconsider. In 2009, he was appointed as its chair, on the condition that the decision-making process switched from voting to consensus
After the TRC completed its final report in 2015, Senator Sinclair announced his retirement from the bench and his intention to withdraw from public life. However he was asked by leaders of Manitoba's Indigenous community to allow them to nominate him for an appointment to Canada's Senate, and with the support of his family, he agreed. He was appointed as a senator from Manitoba in April 2016. Since being appointed to the Senate, Senator Sinclair has helped form the Independent Senators Group and has sat on the Senate Standing Committees on Aboriginal/Indigenous Peoples, Fisheries and Oceans, Legal and Constitutional issues, Rules, Ethics and Conflicts of Interest.
He has also acted as a mediator, makes numerous public appearances on matters relating to Indigenous issues and the Senate of Canada, and was asked to investigate the role of the Police Services Board of Thunder Bay, Ontario, in the light of allegations of systemic racism in policing in that community. That report was completed in October 2018.
Sinclair retired from the Senate in 2021.
As of 2022, Sinclair worked as a lawyer at Winnipeg law firm Cochrane Saxberg.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Senator Sinclair was appointed the chair of Canada's Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in June 2009. The commission's mandate stemmed from the terms of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement as a means by which Residential School Survivors and former staff could inform all Canadians about what happened in
Indian Residential Schools
In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school sys ...
and document the accounts of survivors, former staff, families, communities and anyone personally affected by the Indian Residential Schools experience.
The TRC held hundreds of public and private hearings throughout Canada and documented over 6,000 statements of Survivors and more than 200 from former staff, all of which led to the commission's massive multi-volume Final Report released on December 15, 2015. The Report documented the history of residential schools in Canada, noting that the Government of Canada had legally mandated the forcible removal of children from their families and communities to remove them from the cultural influence of their parents, families and communities. The schools were established to force Indigenous children to stop speaking their unique languages or following their unique cultural beliefs and practices and to adopt Euro-Canadian cultures and languages. This major finding of the Report – that Canada established and maintained its forcible removal and Residential School policy for the primary purpose of eliminating Aboriginal cultures and racial identity – led to its conclusion that Canada had committed
cultural genocide
Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide. Though the precise definition of ''cultural genocide'' remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines i ...
.
The report also noted that the Government refused to include in the Settlement Agreement, those schools to which Indigenous children were sent by direction of the government, but which were managed by the church or other organizations, as well as schools that had been established in Newfoundland and Labrador before it entered into Confederation in 1949. The Report called upon Canada to address that issue quickly and collaboratively.
The report contained 94 Calls to Action and called upon all parts of Canadian Society to commit to reconciliation and to build a more respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Senator Sinclair told everyone very clearly “Reconciliation is not an Indigenous problem. It is a Canadian one.”
In his final speech at the final event, Senator Sinclair acknowledged that reconciliation was going to be difficult, perhaps more difficult than getting at the truth behind Residential Schools, but it had to be done. He addressed all of Canada when he stated: “We have described for you a mountain. We have shown you the way to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.”
Personal life
He is a Fourth Degree Midewiwin member of the Three Fires Society, a traditional Ojibway medicine society of great significance to the Ojibway people.
Sinclair's traditional Ojibway name is ''Mizanay Gheezhik,'' meaning "the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky”. He was named by Traditional Ojibway Teacher and Elder Onobinisay (Jim Dumont).
Sinclair has two children from his first marriage to Jeanette Warren. He is married to Katherine Morrisseau-Sinclair and they have a daughter. Additionally, the Sinclair family has adopted two daughters into the family.
Civic life
Sinclair has served on numerous community boards including The Jemima Centre for the Handicapped,
Scouts Canada
Scouts Canada is a Canadian Scouting association providing programs for young people, aged 5 to 26, with the stated aim "to help develop well rounded youth, better prepared for success in the world". Scouts Canada, in affiliation with the French ...
, The
John Howard Society
The John Howard Society of Canada is a Canadian non-profit organization that seeks to develop understanding and effective responses to the problem of crime and prison reform. It is named after John Howard, a philanthropist and early English priso ...
, The
Royal Canadian Air Cadets
The Royal Canadian Air Cadets (french: Cadets de l'Aviation royale du Canada) is a Canadian national youth program for young individuals aged 12 to 18. Under the authority of the National Defence Act, the program is administered by the Canadian F ...
, The Canadian Club, The Canadian Native Law Students Association, The Canadian Indian Lawyers Association (now the Indigenous Bar Association), The Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, AbinochiZhawaynDakooziwin Ojibway Immersion Nursery School Board, the Selkirk Friendship Centre, the Manitoba Provincial Judges Association, the Manitoba Bar Association, the National Judicial Institute and the board of regents of the University of Winnipeg.
Awards
*In 2016, Murray Sinclair was honoured with a 'Peace Patron Award' by The Mosaic Institute, an NGO based in Toronto working to promote pluralism reducing conflict in Canada and abroad.https://mosaicinstitute.ca/justice-murray-sinclair-is-the-mosaic-institutes-2016-peace-patron/
*Sinclair was awarded the A. J. Christie Prize in Civil Litigation in his second year of law, and articled with a law firm in his home town.
*He was awarded a
National Aboriginal Achievement Award
The Indspire Awards, until 2012 the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, are annual awards presented by Indspire in Canada. The awards are intended to celebrate and encourage excellence in the Aboriginal community.
About
The awards were fi ...
, now the Indspire Awards, in the field of Justice in 1994, and for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.
*He has received 20 honorary degrees for his work in the field of Aboriginal justice.
*Other awards and honours include the Mahatma Gandhi Prize for Peace from the Gandhi Foundation, Canada's World Peace Award (2016) from the
World Federalist Movement-Canada
The World Federalist Movement — Canada (WFMC) is a member organization of the World Federalist Movement, a global citizens movement dedicated to promoting institutions of world governance. WFMC has a national headquarters in Ottawa, and active ...
, the Mandela Award, the Tarnopolski Award for Human Rights from the International Federation of Jurists (2017) and the
Meritorious Service Cross
The Meritorious Service Cross (french: Croix du service méritoire) is a decoration that is, within the Canadian system of honours, one of the two Meritorious Service Decorations gifted by the Canadian monarch, his or her Governor-in-Council. Cr ...
for his service on the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC; french: Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada []) was a truth and reconciliation commission active in Canada from 2008 to 2015, organized by the parties of the Indian Reside ...