Selkirk, Man., to honour Senator Murray Sinclair in park name
The Manitoba hometown of Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Murray Sinclair is honouring the senator by renaming a community park after him.
The city council of Selkirk, Man. — about 35 kilometres north of Winnipeg — unanimously supported the idea at a meeting on Monday, according to Mayor Larry Johannson.
"He means everything. He means so much to not only Selkirk, but he means so much to Manitoba and so much to the nation, so much to Canada," Johnanson said. "What he's done for the Indigenous people is phenomenal."
The renaming was announced at a tribute event in Sinclair's honour in the community on Tuesday.
The park is located at the corner of Queen Avenue and Main Street in Selkirk, not far from the home where Sinclair lived as a child, Johannson said. He hopes to have a renaming ceremony in July during a re-enactment of the signing of the Selkirk Treaty, which was signed in 1817.
Appointed to Senate in 2016, Sinclair previously served as a judge — the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the second in Canada — and as the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Before all that, he grew up in Selkirk, Johannson said, graduating from the city's high school in 1968, where he was valedictorian and athlete of the year.
Johannson said the community wanted to honour Sinclair for his achievements and the light he's shed on Canada's historical treatment of Indigenous peoples.
"It can't be rewritten, but it can be looked at, it can be shared," Johannson said.
"It's time we remembered that there was some wrong done and it's time to right that wrong, acknowledge it, and Senator Sinclair is the man that's leading it."
