Sinclair memorial service set for downtown arena

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This article was published 05/11/2024 (312 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A public memorial service for the late Anishinaabe leader who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada will take place Sunday in downtown Winnipeg.

Tributes from around the world poured in for Murray Sinclair, whose spirit name was Mazina Giizhik (The One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky), in the 24 hours after his death. Sinclair, 73, died on Monday.

“The significance of Mazina Giizhik’s impact and reach cannot be overstated,” states a news release about two upcoming memorial events issued on behalf of his family.

“He touched many lives and impacted thousands of people. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend a public memorial service which will take place on Sunday … to celebrate his life and his journey home, in a good way.”

The Canada Life Centre will host the memorial service for the renowned judge, starting at 2 p.m. Sunday. Doors to the event, organized by the federal and provincial governments, with support from True North Sports and Entertainment, will open at 1 p.m.

A public visitation — open to extended family, friends and the community-at-large, but closed to media — is set for Wednesday at the Centro Caboto Centre from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A sacred fire has been lit on the north lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building and surrounding flags remain at half-mast. Mourners are invited to visit the site and make an offering of tobacco.

“The family appreciates the continued respect for their privacy in this time of mourning,” the statement says.

A book of condolences will also be placed near the grand staircase Wednesday in the legislative building as a tribute to the first Indigenous judge to be named to the Manitoba provincial court and Court of King’s Bench. The public can sign the book through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Books of condolences will also be available to sign at the memorial and viewing.

Instead of flowers, Sinclair’s family is asking those who wish to make a donation to do so through the Murray Sinclair Memorial Fund at wfp.to/sinclairmemorial.

The website reads: “Gifts to the fund will be held until Mr. Sinclair’s family determines whether the fund will be endowed at the Winnipeg Foundation to offer permanent community support, or flow directly to organizations in our community.”

Cards and messages can be mailed to the offices of Cochrane Sinclair, 201-211 Bannatyne Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R3B 3P2.

A local historian is also calling on Canadians to display orange T-shirts in their windows to mark the solemn occasion.

Sean Carleton, a scholar at the University of Manitoba, said he felt compelled to take immediate and personal action to show his grief.

“We owe him, and the residential school survivors he supported, a great deal for helping to put us on the path of truth and reconciliation.”–Sean Carleton

Carleton dug through his closet and found an orange T-shirt, a symbol of the Every Child Matters movement, to display by his front door.

Citing the reality that many Canadians will not be able to offer their condolences in person, he invited others to do the same via social media.

“We owe him, and the residential school survivors he supported, a great deal for helping to put us on the path of truth and reconciliation,” Carleton, who has cross appointments in the U of M departments of history and Indigenous studies, wrote in a post on X.

There were grassroots efforts to hang orange garments across the country after 215 potential unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C., in May 2021.

Many carry on the tradition annually around Sept. 30 (Orange Shirt Day), now formally known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“As Murray is passing to the other side, if he’s able to see a number of Canadians displaying their orange shirts, that might bring a smile to his face, as well as give people a way to participate in the process of grieving,” Carleton told the Free Press.

Sinclair had expressed concern Canada was rushing reconciliation and leaving the truth behind in recent years, he noted.

Carleton said displaying an orange shirt is a small gesture to both memorialize the chief commissioner of the TRC and spark conversation about the difficult truths he devoted much of his life to honour.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca