Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Leadership, learnedness, wisdom, compassion, composure—those are some of the words that come to mind as I think of Senator Sinclair. Indeed, I consider Murray Sinclair to be a founding father of truth and reconciliation for Canada, but I'd like to give a more personal perspective.
I first met Mr. Sinclair when he came to a special meeting of the Yukon Medical Association in 2014, and I would say that meeting was a turning point in our medical community's journey of reconciliation. Many physicians had heard of residential schools, but they had never quite related that history to clinical encounters and how the residential school experience, either direct or through generational trauma, in other words, one child's direct experience in residential school, carries that trauma on through the generations, and that trauma in turn influences not just the health of first nations people but also whether they present for care and how they present for care.
It's so important for health care providers to understand the enduring effects of residential schools, and Mr. Sinclair was instrumental in laying the foundation. I remember feeling in myself how I transformed from more or less superficial knowledge to the beginning of a much more profound understanding. There were many tears in a silent and captivated room when Mr. Sinclair spoke, and I could see the light of realization coming into the faces of many of my colleagues.
He was an expert in law, residential schools and Canadian history, but ultimately a person who was able through his personal experience to tell the story of residential schools that went straight to the heart, inspiring a commitment not just to listen and to understand, but to actively participate in undoing the wrongs of the past, to integrate awareness of systemic racism, and to do better in meeting the needs and recognizing the leadership of Yukon first nations.
Thank you, Mr. Sinclair, for all that you contributed to Canada's growth in truth and reconciliation.
I extend my sincere and deep condolences to Mr. Sinclair's family.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.