The Queen’s neighborhood is remembering Murray Sinclair, Chancellor Emeritus and Particular Advisor to the Principal on Reconciliation, who handed away on Monday, Nov. 4 in Winnipeg following a interval of sickness. He was 73.
His Honour served as Queen’s fifteenth Chancellor from 2021-2024 and was the primary Indigenous individual to serve within the function. He introduced a few years of management expertise in governance and legislation, most notably via his service as a justice to the Courtroom of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba, his function as Chief Commissioner of Canada’s Fact and Reconciliation Fee, and as a Senator within the Senate of Canada. In recent times he served as Normal Counsel with Cochrane Saxberg LLP, Manitoba’s largest Indigenous legislation agency. He has obtained honorary doctorates from 14 universities, together with Queen’s in 2019.
As considered one of Canada’s most vital advocates for Indigenous individuals, his unwavering dedication to the rules of fairness and inclusion reworked the nation’s political panorama for the higher. Equally, whereas at Queen’s, his experience and care considerably contributed to the college’s ongoing evolution as an establishment.
He performed a pivotal function in advancing reality and reconciliation, decolonization, and Indigenization on campus. For instance, His Honour helped facilitate crucial advances on reviewing college practices, insurance policies, and procedures, and he lent his eager and considerate knowledge to precedence initiatives such because the college’s Nationwide Day for Fact and Reconciliation actions.
“Queen’s was uniquely honoured when Chancellor Sinclair agreed to tackle the place, and we have now benefited enormously from his knowledge and dedication. He understood the important thing function establishments like ours can and should play within the strategy of reconciliation,” says Principal Deane. “We’ll miss him for that, in addition to for his fantastic private heat and good humour. He was an ideal man, fiercely principled but profoundly humane.”
After His Honour opted to not search reappointment for a second time period as Queen’s Chancellor, he as an alternative transitioned to Particular Advisor to the Principal on Reconciliation. Award-winning broadcast journalist Shelagh Rogers was chosen to succeed Sinclair and commenced her time period in July 2024. She is his cousin and shut pal.
“We now have misplaced a visionary chief who acted out of knowledge, his deep humanity and love. Chancellor Emeritus Sinclair gave us the chance to study the reality, and as importantly, to unlearn the foundational myths on the coronary heart of the historical past of Canada,” says Chancellor Rogers. “He calls us nonetheless to alter the world and to make it higher for every new era, aligning with the raison d’être of our college. One of the best ways to honour him is to proceed his important work.”
A sacred hearth has been lit in his honour on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Constructing and in lieu of flowers, the household is asking those that are capable of donate to The Murray Sinclair Memorial Fund at The Winnipeg Basis.