Murray Sinclair

Calvin Murray Sinclair (born Mizanay (Mizhana) Gheezhik; January 24, 1951) is a former member of the Canadian Senate and First Nations lawyer who served as chairman of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2009 to 2015.

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, 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 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 Q.C., who was at that time the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Selkirk and the Attorney General of Manitoba, as his executive assistant.

In 1976, Sinclair continued his academic career at the University of Winnipeg, studying sociology and history.

He then attended law school at the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, and graduated in 1979, having won the A.J. Christie Prize awarded to the top student in litigation in his second year of legal studies.

Sinclair also spent his teenage years as an air cadet with #6 Jim Whitecross Royal Canadian Air Cadet 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.

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 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.

He previously served as a judge in Manitoba from 1988 to 2009, being the first Indigenous judge appointed in the province.

Senator Sinclair was appointed as associate chief judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba 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 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 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 (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

Queen's University announced the appointment of Sinclair as the 15th chancellor, succeeding Jim Leech.

He assumed the role on July 1, 2021.

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.

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.

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.