The Honourable Murray Sinclair LLB MSC IPC

The Honourable Murray Sinclair is Anishinaabe and a member of the Peguis First Nation. He is a Fourth Degree Chief of the Midewiwin Society. His Spirit Name is Mizhana Gheezhik (The One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky). Graduated from law school in 1979, he has been involved with the justice system in Manitoba for over 40 years as a lawyer, as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Robson Hall, as Associate Chief Judge of Manitoba’s Provincial Court, and as a Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench. Murray Sinclair was the first Indigenous Judge appointed in Manitoba and Canada’s second. He also served as Co-Chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba and as Chief Commissioner of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He was active within the profession and his community and was a member of the faculty of the National Judicial Institute training judges about Indigenous law and social justice issues. He has won numerous awards, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, the Manitoba Bar Association’s Equality Award (2001), its Distinguished Service Award (2016), and the CBA President’s medal (2018). He has been named as one of Canada’s Indigenous People’s Counsel (IPC) by the Indigenous Bar Association.