Niigaan Sinclair

Manitoba

City Columnist at Winnipeg Free Press

Author of Winipek, Columnist @WinnipegNews (frmr NNA Cdn columnist of year), panelist @PnPCBC, Truth&Politics Panel @APTNNews & Prof, INDG Studies @umanitoba

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Articles

Opinion: Alberta can’t turn page on Canada without First Nations

3 days ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

Imagine starting a book on Chapter 2. The story would make no sense. Understanding it would be a very frustrating experience. Many details would be missed. And, in the end, what would be left is countless invalid assumptions and conclusions based on ignorance and incomplete information.
Opinion: Tough choices for Indigenous voters in key Prairie ridings

3 weeks ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

In order to understand the Indigenous vote in next week’s federal election, two ridings will tell the story. The first is Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River in northern Saskatchewan, where First Nations voters make up 67.6 per cent of the electorate, 15 Métis communities exist, and a small but significant proportion of Denesuline and Inuit peoples reside. The riding also features an all-Indigenous slate.
Opinion: Pope wasn’t perfect but showed us another path

3 weeks ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

I have seldom been more conflicted than when Pope Francis wore a headdress. Wilton Littlechild, a former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, gave the pontiff the headdress after he delivered an apology in 2022 for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system. I felt confused and triggered, and thought about this for a long time. I said in numerous interviews at the time that I wasn’t a fan of using sacred objects for political purposes.
Opinion: Young dynamo will chart ambitious course as chief of Birdtail Sioux

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

At the 2022 Manitoba Indigenous Youth Achievement Awards, a 22-year-old woman from Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation won in the community volunteer category for organizing a “Reconciliation Run” that honours the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The most memorable part wasn’t that she had won it, it was her speech. “In three years I am going to run for chief of my community,” Tréchelle Bunn announced to applause.
Opinion: Fathers are not sons — good news for Carney’s prospects with Indigenous voters

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

After announcing he was seeking the leadership of the Liberal party in January, Mark Carney met with former Progressive Conservative MP Douglas Roche, who defeated his father (and Liberal candidate) Bob Carney in Edmonton South during the 1980 federal election. Roche, 96, comes from a different era of Canadian conservatism. He is anti-war, pro-United Nations, and served as Canada’s Ambassador for Disarmament.
Opinion: The many teachings of spring

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

The spring equinox occurred around 4 a.m. on Thursday. It’s a time when the Earth’s axis and orbit line up relatively perfectly, creating an equal amount of sunlight in both the northern and southern hemispheres. It’s also a time when the seasons begin to change, the animals migrate, and T-shirts start to appear. In other words: this week represents a time of balance, renewal, and growth for people across the world, including Indigenous communities and cultures here.
Opinion: Fight Trump, build the economy — but don’t forget about Indigenous Peoples

2 months ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

So, Mark Carney is Canada’s new gichi-ogimaa, or prime minister. He’s a fresh face in Canadian politics, an unelected official and “outsider.”He’s also a banker, economist, former employee of the multinational investment firm Goldman Sachs and the man who served as the eighth governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013, and the 120th governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. A zhooniya-inini, money guy.
Opinion: Patriotic pageantry and astonishing apologies at Manitoba legislature

2 months ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

There was an unexpected series of events as the second session of Manitoba’s 43rd legislature resumed Wednesday, in the midst of a Canada-U.S. trade war instigated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Unprecedented moments, though, create unprecedented actions. At the top of the list was Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and his NDP caucus, unveiling a massive Canadian flag, draped over the legislative building.
Will Reconciliation Survive the Trade War?

2 months ago | hatchetmedia.substack.com | Niigaan Sinclair |Arshy Mann

There’s been a surge of Canadian nationalism over the last month, and understandably so. I’ve been feeling it too, I think it’d be hard not to. You really couldn’t grow a better villain in a lab than Donald Trump to actually rally Canadians in this way. And with that has come a good amount of talk of both Canadian history and the need for modern-day nation-building. That’s a good impulse.
Opinion: It was about race, class and gender; feasibility of landfill search had nothing to do with it

2 months ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Niigaan Sinclair

On Wednesday, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew reported that experts searching for Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris at the Prairie Green Landfill had identified potential human remains while looking well below the surface. Since last December, searchers have been excavating the area where Winnipeg police believe the remains of the two women — victims of convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki — were buried in 2022.