Ottawa Citizen: Murray Sinclair to receive Carleton honorary degree

Justice Murray Sinclair [LL.B./1979, LL.D./2002] will receive an honorary degree from Carleton University during convocation ceremonies on Saturday, November 14, 2015. The U of M alumnus led Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2009 until it presented its landmark report into systematic abuse in Canada’s residential school system earlier this year.

The Ottawa Citizen reports on this honour for Sinclair:

Sinclair, a native of Selkirk, Man., studied law at the University of Manitoba and was that province’s first aboriginal judge when he was appointed to the bench in 1988. He was co-commissioner of Manitoba’s Aboriginal Justice Inquiry and also led an investigation into deaths of 12 children at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre pediatric cardiac surgery program in 1994.

But it was his position at the helm of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that made Sinclair a national figure. Sinclair took over the commission after a dispute between the original three commissioners threatened to derail the entire process. Under Sinclair’s stewardship, the commission heard testimony from more than 7,000 people and filed a two-million word report last spring.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to implement all 94 of the commission’s recommendations.

The university will award Sinclair with a Doctor of Laws honoris causa “in recognition of his stellar career in judiciary as well as his dedication, care and service to Aboriginal and First Nations peoples and to all Canadians in leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

Read the full story at www.ottawacitizen.com.