Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair, Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild and Commissioner Marie Wilson (right to left) listen to a speaker as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission is released, Tuesday December 15, 2015 in Ottawa. Photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press.
The community of Maskwacis south of Edmonton is holding prayer ceremonies for Murray Sinclair, the former lawyer, judge, senator and commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission who died Monday at the age of 73 after being ill for several weeks.
Maskwacis is home to Wilton Littlechild, one of the people who worked with Sinclair on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He told APTN News that when his phone rang on Monday, he knew what it meant.
He said Sinclair was much more than a lawyer, judge, commissioner and senator.
“There’s two things that really underpin his foundation, to be able to contribute so much, not only to our people, but to our country, and that was his love of family,” Littlechild told APTN News.
“He shared his love with others as well, but mainly his family, that was an underpinning pillar when I look back at his career.”
Littlechild and Marie Wilson joined Sinclair to form the TRC in 2009 and they worked through 2016 with the release of their report and it’s 94 calls to action – which many say is a blueprint for reconciliation in Canada.
The TRC had been mandated in 2008 by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to gather and document the history and impact of the residential school system. Both Littlechild and Sinclair were raised by their grandparents.
Littlechild said he and Sinclair shared that bond before they ever worked together. They also played fastball in their younger years; Littlechild a player, Sinclair an umpire.
He said spirituality was always important to Sinclair, noting how he would often join ceremonies that people held outside of the TRC hearings.
A sacred fire was lit Monday at the Manitoba legislature, in the Anishinaabe tradition, to guide Sinclair’s spirit home. The family has asked that no other fires be lit for him.
“That sacred fire that is burning is the signal of a great man,” Littlechild said.
According to Littlechild, Sinclair’s legacy will continue to reverberate beyond Canada’s borders, and says he’s sure it played a role in the recent apology by U.S. President Joe Biden for the boarding school legacy in the United States.
Most of all, Littlechild says Sinclair was a leader, no matter which arena he was working in.
“When we were having challenges in our work, he always grounded us together as colleagues with love, as commissioners, as a team,” Littlechild said.
‘Wonderful experience to travel that journey together’
Echoing Littlechild’s sentiments is Marie Wilson who joined as the third member of the TRC.
“When I found out who the commission team was and that Murray would be chair and chief Willy would be my co-commissioner, I thought that feels like a dream team and it proved to be that, I think,” Wilson told APTN.
The TRC spent six years travelling all over Canada, gathering the testimony of residential school survivors and others impacted by the school system. In the end, it heard from more than 6,500 witnesses about what happened in the schools.
“It was just such a monumental and wonderful experience to travel that journey together,” Wilson said.
Wilson said something people may not know about Sinclair is that he had a great sense of humour and could even solicit a laugh in the face of serious subjects.
“We were dealing with hard, hard material. Hard subject matter, heartbreaking subject matter and it would make you so sad, it would make you so angry, it would make you so outraged. It would make you so discouraged, but it would also lift you up to see and listen to survivors who somehow could bring humour to what they were sharing with us,” Wilson said.
“And he himself was of that nature. He was quick to tease and in that big room he would start it off with some sort of joke. And it was very much in his nature and I think that that was a defining thing that bound us all together and kept us all going.”
Wilson said Sinclair was an “fantastic storyteller” and recalled a story he shared that was indicative of his impact on Indigenous people.
“He was telling a story of one of the days, one of the encounters at the Manitoba Aboriginal Justice Inquiry at the particular place he was in. And, he noticed that there was this person, an elderly man, as he told it, who kept coming in and sitting along the sidelines and not saying anything but just listening and watching, and listening.
“At the end of the session, Murray told us, he went up to the man and said ‘I see you’ve been sitting here for all these days, and yet you haven’t said anything. And, I’m just wondering what is the most important thing you heard?’ And he said, ‘The most important thing I heard was to look at you and say ‘you’re honour.’”
Wilson said Sinclair knew what an important and inspirational role he held as the second Indigenous judge appointed in Canada.
“And to this elderly Indigenous man to have a person who looked like him, be recognized in that way, it was a big move, it was something that was new for him.”
On the importance of his family, Wilson summed it up like this:
“He was justice Sinclair, he was senator Sinclair, he was the honourable Sinclair, he was of course commissioner and chair Sinclair. Very preciously to him, he was a Mooshum.”
Willie Littlechild added another title to the list that he will remember Sinclair for—brother.
“We were so close as colleagues and sort of adopting each other as brothers. It leaves a real dent in the heart.”
