The Honourable Murray Sinclair

On April 28, 2021, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane announced The Honourable Murray Sinclair as Queen’s 15th Chancellor.

An experienced national leader, Chancellor-Designate Sinclair is well-positioned to advise Queen’s as it pursues a vision of social impact.

Sinclair has had an extensive legal career and over several decades has established himself as a leading advocate for Indigenous peoples in Canada. He served as the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the second in Canada. On the national level, he led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which documented the history of residential schools in Canada and issued 94 calls to action to promote reconciliation between Canada and Indigenous peoples.

In recognition of his decades of service, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2016 and served as a Senator until January 2021.

He currently serves as General Counsel with Cochrane Saxberg LLP, Manitoba’s largest Indigenous law firm.

Sinclair is Anishinaabe and a member of the Peguis First Nation. He is a Fourth Degree Chief of the Midewiwin Society, a traditional healing and spiritual society of the Anishinaabe Nation responsible for protecting the teachings, ceremonies, laws, and history of the Anishinaabe. His Spirit Name is Mizhana Gheezhik (The One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky).

Sinclair earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Winnipeg and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba in 1979. He has received honorary doctorates from 14 universities, including Queen’s in 2019 (as pictured above in a photo by Bernard Clark).