Editor,
I recently had an opportunity to read the memoir of former senator Murray Sinclair, who once led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). I was awestruck to find how he had forewarned about the ongoing crisis between the U.S. and Canada much earlier than Donald Trump got re-elected as President.
The Honourable Murray Sinclair had passed away on Nov. 4, 2024, days before Trump won defeating Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“Who we are; Four questions for a life and a nation” was launched last year while Sinclair was alive. Apart from cautioning the people about growing denialism about the ugly history of the so-called residential schools, Sinclair wrote how he is concerned with “the right-wing autocratic belief that has taken hold of the world."
While trying to imagine what the world is going to be like in 25 years, he categorically mentioned that “guys like Donald Trump come along, and other autocratic leaders hold power around the world."
He then warned that Canada faces the possibility that Trump will be re-elected and goes on to add, “he will look at our oil and forestry resources and decide that he wants them. And if he wants them, what’s to stop him from taking them? I can’t tell you.”
All this coincides with the emergence of far-right-wing forces in Canada, who are increasingly becoming louder in denying the genocide of the indigenous peoples at the residential schools, a challenge Sinclair was equally worried about.
Gurpreet Singh, North Delta
