Murray Sinclair Calls on Canadians to Join Together to Promote Reconciliation

Posted on Tuesday, May 11th, 2021

The Honourable Murray Sinclair, participating Tuesday in an Algonquin College Speaker Series event hosted by Pembroke Campus, issued a call to action to individuals aspiring to play a part in reconciliation with Canada’s First Nations.

“I speak often with groups who ask me ‘What can I do? Is it too big a problem for me?’” Sinclair said. “I say it isn’t too big for you. You can do this very easily. You need to first of all make yourself aware of Canada’s history and what it’s done to you. Understand how it’s effected your thinking and work hard to change the way you think about Indigenous people and Indigenous issues.”

Beyond that, he called on people to help their children and grandchildren understand their responsibility to reconciliation. He said they need to know it “isn’t just about dialogue around the dinner table. It’s about bringing Indigenous friends to the table with you so your children can see that these are not dangerous, savage people, that they are real human beings, that their children are children they can play with.”

Sinclair has been one of the most consequential individuals in Canada for decades. He was the first Aboriginal judge appointed in Manitoba and the second in Canada. He was Co-Chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in Manitoba and Chief Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), that issued its ground-breaking report in 2015. He was appointed to the Senate in 2016 and retired from that chamber in January 2021. He was recently named as the 15th Chancellor of Queen’s University.

His Honour spent the best part of 60 minutes speaking calmly but unflinchingly during the presentation about the complex, often cruel history of relations between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples of Canada. He spoke about the attempted obliteration of Indigenous history, language and customs in a process that began with the arrival of Europeans on our shores and continued for centuries.

He reminded attendees about the brutal residential school system, and how children were taught from the beginning “that they were heathens, that they were savages, that they were devil worshippers. That their people were not to be trusted and that they needed to learn what it meant to be a white man and needed to strive that way.”

Yet he also spoke about the strength of Indigenous communities despite the pressures brought to bear: about children who, once they returned home, were helped to recover with the aid of their families, community elders, ceremonies and teachings about the story of their people, their responsibility and their purpose.

Sinclair spoke often about what can be accomplished for our children and grandchildren, how important the process of reconciliation is for them. But he clearly has no illusions about the ease with which change can be effected.

He reminded his listeners that there were 64 Truth and Reconciliation Commissions around the world before Canada began its own process. “Every one of them met with resistance after their report was issued,” he said. “And in almost all cases that resistance was successful because it’s much easier for people to continue doing what they’re doing rather than changing.”

Yet he also believes beneficial change is possible, and one of the most important paths, he said, involves education – teaching children and youth the reality of our history so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can speak to each other honestly and from a foundation of knowledge and understanding.

To watch a recording of the Honourable Murray Sinclair’s presentation, click here.


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