Murray Sinclair was born in 1951 in Selkirk, Manitoba and lived in the Interlake region as a member of the Peguis First Nation (Anishinaabe/Ojibway). He grew up in a Canada where Indigenous children and families were still deeply affected by the legacy of the residential school system, and where Indigenous voices were largely excluded from the country’s legal and political institutions. Despite these barriers, Sinclair pursued higher education, studying law at the University of Manitoba before being called to the bar in 1980.

After beginning his career as a lawyer, he quickly moved into public service, becoming one of the first Indigenous judges appointed in Manitoba and indeed one of the first in Canada. His work as a judge was marked by a focus on justice and equity in a system that had long had a disproportionately negative impact on Indigenous people. He later served as Associate Chief Justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, building a reputation as a careful jurist who understood how the law intersected with history, trauma and inequality.

In 2009, Sinclair was appointed Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Over six years, the Commission heard testimony from thousands of survivors of the residential school system, documenting its profoundly damaging impact on generations of Indigenous Canadians. The Commission’s final report, released in 2015, included 94 Calls to Action that continue to guide efforts toward reconciliation across Canada. Sinclair became one of the most prominent public voices urging Canadians to confront this history and to translate awareness into meaningful structural change.

After the Commission concluded, Sinclair was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 2016, where he continued to speak out on issues of justice, Indigenous rights and education until his retirement in 2021. Sinclair died in 2024 and is remembered not only for his roles as judge and senator, but for his insistence that understanding and confronting difficult history is necessary to build a just future.

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