'A very joyous time': Murray Sinclair remembered by thousands at national commemorative service

A pillar in Canada’s history was honoured in Winnipeg Sunday afternoon, with thousands showing up to pay tribute to the life and legacy of the late Murray Sinclair.

A pillar in Canada’s history was honoured in Winnipeg Sunday afternoon, with thousands showing up to pay tribute to the life and legacy of the late Murray Sinclair.

Born in 1951 near Selkirk, Man., Sinclair was a member of Peguis First Nation. As an Anishinaabe lawyer, he moved on to become Manitoba’s first Indigenous justice and only the second in all of Canada.

He served as a senator and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), listening to stories of residential school survivors to develop 94 calls to action.

He died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73.

Sinclair's family remembers him as “a beacon of integrity and compassion,” serving a country he loved, even if it meant shining a light on its dark past.

During the national commemorative ceremony Sunday, Sinclair’s son, Niigaan Sinclair, emphasized his father's lasting legacy.

“Few people have shaped this country in the way that my father has, and few people can say they changed the course of this country the way that my father had to put us on a better path,” Niigaan said. "He is, in many ways, the epitome of all of us: the good, the bad, the great, all of the parts that come together to this place.”