14 Manitobans who made a difference that died in 2024

By: Kevin Rollason

An Indigenous leader who helped change the path of the country’s history by urging truth and reconciliation, a gridiron legend who assisted people fight cancer off the field, a provincial minister who helped workers and a community activist who successfully fought for a new hospital are just some of the prominent people in the province who died during 2024.

When Murray Sinclair took his first legal steps as a lawyer, judges would wave him off in a courtroom, believing he was an accused and not a defence counsel.

The judges misjudged him.

That’s because Sinclair, who was 73 when he died on Nov. 4, went on to not only become a judge himself, he served as associate chief judge of the provincial court and a Court of Queen’s Bench Justice before his appointment to the Senate.

Along the way, Sinclair co-chaired the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry and was commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“With his passing, Canada has lost a giant,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during Sinclair’s funeral service. “A brilliant legal mind, a champion of Indigenous rights and a trusted leader on our journey of reconciliation.”

“It will be a long time before our nation produces another person the calibre of Murray Sinclair,” said Premier Wab Kinew. “He showed us there is no reconciliation without truth. We should hold dear in our hearts his words that our nation is on the cusp of a great new era and we must all ‘dare to live greatly together.’”

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Cathy Merrick was a trailblazing leader for Indigenous people.

Merrick, who was 63 when she died on Sept. 6, broke the glass ceiling and became the first woman elected as Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Before becoming Grand Chief, Merrick was a community advocate who became a councillor at Pimicikamak Cree Nation in 2001, before being elected chief in 2013.

She supported the families of the victims of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, fighting hard for the search of a landfill for their remains, and championed reform of the child welfare system where about 90 per cent of the children in care are Indigenous.

“She approached her work with joy, compassion, thoughtfulness and a spirituality that was grounded in the belief that we are all equal in the eyes of the Creator and that we all deserve to live a good life,” said Kinew.

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Ray St. Germain, Canada’s Elvis, has left the building for a final time.

St. Germain, who died on June 25 at 83, was a Metis singer-songwriter and television personality who was best known as being longtime host of the TV program Big Sky Country.

St. Germain released She’s a Square as a single in 1958 and it became the first rock record by a Winnipegger to reach the national charts.

“I wanted to be Elvis when I was younger,” wrote St. Germain in his autobiography. “But I wouldn’t trade my life for his. Besides, he never got to stay at the Harwood Hotel in Moose Jaw.”

He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

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Lyle Bauer was a Winnipeg Blue Bomber great and a three time Grey Cup champion, who excelled on the field before becoming the team’s president and CEO.

But arguably, it was Bauer’s battle off the gridiron which had the greatest impact.

Bauer, who was 65 when he died on April 26, co-founded the Never Alone Cancer Foundation in 2004 shortly after being diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer.

Since then, the foundation has helped numerous people diagnosed with cancer through emotional, financial, and informational support.

He was inducted into the Blue Bombers Hall of Fame in 1998.

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Becky Barrett boosted workplace safety and fostered labour peace during her time as Premier Gary Doer’s labour minister.

Barrett, who was 81 when she died on Jan. 26, served as an MLA from 1990 to 2003 and labour minister from 1999 to 2003.

While in that portfolio, she moved to strengthen workplace health and safety rules while creating six new safety officer positions in the wake of an explosion which killed one miner and injured 13 others at the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting mine in Flin Flon.

She also had the Workplace Safety and Health Act rewritten to add severe penalties for employers who ignored rules as well as introducing legislation to allow unions and employers to access alternative dispute resolution settlement process.

“She made a difference for more labour-management peace, with fewer days lost to strike and lockout,” said Doer. “She was a really good labour minister.”

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Richard Scott was not only the province’s chief judge, he was its longest-serving one.

Scott, who died on Nov. 21 at 86, was a civil litigation lawyer who was appointed a Court of Queen’s Bench justice in 1985.

He rose to associate chief justice just four months later and became Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called him in 1990, serving in that position for 23 years until 2013.

During his tenure as a judge, Scott presided over the Angelique Lavallee trial, who was acquitted of killing her common-law partner. It has gone on to be considered the country’s leading case on “battered wife syndrome”.

“I stuck my neck out a little bit because I thought it was the right thing to do with the facts of the case,” he said during a retirement interview with the Free Press. “I’m proud of it.”

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Olga Fuga, who died on July 6 at the age of 94, began her political career when elected as a trustee to the Winnipeg School Board in 1963, becoming chair and then being elected to city council in the early 1970s.

It was then Fuga began advocating and fundraising for a hospital to serve northwest Winnipeg, eventually persuading the province to build the Seven Oaks General Hospital in 1981.

Fuga was Manitoba director of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews and was honoured for her activism by being inducted into both the Order of Manitoba and the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour.

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Chad Posthumus’ life was cut too short, but he was tall in his career.

Posthumus, who was 33 when he died on Nov. 20 following a brain aneurysm and complications from surgery, was a professional basketball player who played for Team Canada and several Canadian Elite Basketball teams before coming back to be captain of his hometown Winnipeg Sea Bears. He also played in Japan and Argentina.

“He was our captain — leader of the Sea Bears,” said premier Wab Kinew during question period after Posthumus’s death. “The Beast from River East, somebody that we were so proud of to have come out of our hometown… wonderful person.”

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Maurice “Mo” Renaud helped entertain Manitobans.

Renaud, who died on Nov. 14 at 94 years of age, served 18 years as general manager of the Red River Exhibition, taking it from a country fair in 1975 to a multi-million dollar and multi-day extravaganza.

He also became known by Blue Bomber fans for his voice — he was the public address announcer for 582 consecutive games from 1962 to 1997.

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John Buhler built a farm equipment empire in Manitoba.

Buhler, who was 91 when he died on Dec. 21, took his first step towards that when he bought Standard Gas Engine Works in Morden in 1969 and renamed it Farm King Limited.

He went on to create Buhler Industries, adding Versatile tractor manufacturer to the company and had 10 manufacturing and eight distribution centres across North America when he sold 80 per cent of his business to a Russian company for $150 million in 2007. It is now owned by a Turkish agricultural equipment company.

Buhler took much of the proceeds from the sale and used it to help people, leading to the creation of the Buhler Cancer Centre at the Victoria Hospital, a 54,000 square foot expansion at Siloam Mission and the Buhler Gallery at St. Boniface Hospital. He was inducted into the Order of Canada.

Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham said Buhler’s “remarkable contributions and enduring legacy have left a lasting mark on our community.”

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Three veteran Winnipeg city councillors — Evelyne Reese, Bill Neville and Jae Eadie — each re-elected several times during the 1980s and 1990s, died during the year.

Reese, who was 91 when she died on Jan. 29, represented parts of St. Boniface for more than 20 years. She said her proudest achievement was helping to force the relocation of an asphalt plant out of the Windsor Park community.

Neville, who died on March 29 at 83, represented Tuxedo and was known for championing the city’s heritage buildings. He later wrote a weekly column in the Free Press and was the former husband of Lieutenant Governor Anita Neville.

Eadie, who was 76 when he died on April 29, represented parts of St. James and was the longtime chairman of the civic works and operations committee (now called public works), city council’s first speaker and served a term as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

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Larry Updike was known for his voice.

Updike, who was 69, when he died on June 20, was a longtime local radio personality who was also an ordained minister and lifelong advocate for the most vulnerable in society.

He was a minister first in Ontario, working in radio on the side to supplement his income, before coming to Winnipeg and ending up being hired by 97.5 FM and working with Tom McGouran.

Updike later hosted CJOB’s morning show, became Siloam Mission’s spokesman and then hosted CBC Radio’s Up to Speed afternoon show. He was inducted into the Manitoba Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2009 and was honoured with a Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal for his support of the War Amps.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca