Mr. Speaker, I am honoured today to speak on behalf of the NDP to honour a great human being, Murray Sinclair, a mentor and a hero who had a profoundly kind and wise ability to cut through colonial noise to shine the truth on Canada's colonial history. This was a daunting task at a time where there was growing denialism about the horrors and genocide that occurred at the residential schools. He listened to the stories and internalized and carried the pain of thousands of survivors, defending and honouring their truths, which he shared with the rest of the world.
He knew that reconciliation and the decolonization of Canada would be met with obstacles, yet he never quit moving forward to help everyone across Canada to develop a collective understanding of truth, calling out those in power to act and to reflect to ensure that truth would shine through the darkness. As he stated in an interview with Brett Forester in January 2021:
The people who believe that they have the privilege of holding power and should continue to have that privilege, they’re going to push back.... They’re going to fight against reconciliation. They’re the deniers of this story. They’re going to say this never happened. That the schools were all about education and the Indians should be thankful that they got an education.
He went on to say, “Schools were never about education, schools were always about forced assimilation and indoctrination, and we need to call it for what it is.”
He persisted in his calls for us to do better, to reflect on how our need to protect our own privilege and power impeded our ability to reconcile in this country. He did it in such a way as to help build a collective understanding of the colonization of Canada. I am truly grateful to him for his strength to share truth, especially for survivors who continue to suffer in silence as a result of the abuses they experienced in the schools.
He gifted Canada with a path through 94 calls to action to lead towards reconciliation. We have that path forward, which he provided to us based on the gifts of stories provided by survivors. It is now up to us to honour his legacy by taking actions that will lead to reconciliation.
In addition to his role as the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he served in many prominent roles, including sitting on the Canadian Senate and as the co-commissioner of the aboriginal justice inquiry, a public inquiry commissioned by the Manitoba government to explore the failure of the justice system regarding the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the death of J. J. Harper. In his role as co-commissioner, he revealed, unapologetically, the systemic racism within the Manitoba justice system and provided a path forward to improve its relationship with indigenous peoples, something that has never been actualized and something he never stopped fighting for.
In 2021, after the killing of Eishia Hudson, a 17-year-old indigenous girl, at the hands of the Winnipeg city police, he called out the independent investigation unit on its lack of transparency regarding police misconduct, stating:
I don't have a lot of faith in the Independent Investigation Unit that's in place right now to look into police officer conduct.
I can't think of an instance where they've truly done a transparent thorough investigation that has convinced me…that their decision is the right one in the circumstances.
He was a model of courage and truth-telling and he was a role model to me, reminding me to always be truthful even in the face of adversity, to lead with humility and kindness and to not attach myself to power and privilege, instead to support a collective effort to fight for a better world for all people.
He was a human rights defender whom I personally had the honour to know, both him and his family. He was always a truly humble and kind man who always took time to make sure anyone he spoke to felt special, including me. Sometimes when I was around him and he would ask me how I was doing and I would fill him in, I really felt he was proud of me. That meant a lot to me. That is a rare gift, and one that he had.
He had a way of making everyone he met feel special and loved. He was a tremendous listener and protector. It felt a little safer in the world knowing that this wonderfully kind and brilliant human had my back.
We have lost our Martin Luther King. He changed the world one truth at a time and brought everyone along with him. I know that many of us in our community are hurting with tremendous grief, and we must take the lessons that he taught us and honour him through action.
I am thankful to his family for sharing him with us. As a public servant, I know that service comes at great cost to families and children. I want them to know that I am here for them during this time of need.
I love my brother Niigaan. I will be here for him like he has always been here for me, because like his father, Niigaan is truly a gift to the world.
On behalf of the NDP, I send my deepest condolences to the family of the hon. Murray Sinclair. May he fly high with our ancestors until we meet again.