Seven new senators appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were sworn in at a ceremony in the upper chamber Tuesday afternoon.

They are the first additions to the Senate in three years. Since Trudeau has vowed to make the Senate less partisan, the new members will sit as independents, not Liberals.

Two years ago, Trudeau removed all Liberal-appointed senators from the party caucus, forcing them to sit as independents as part of his promise to get rid of patronage appointments.

Retired senior bureaucrat Peter Harder, who worked on Trudeau’s transition team, will act as the government’s representative in the red chamber. Harder also previously worked in a political role for Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark.

Retired Manitoba judge Murray Sinclair is also among the new Senate appointments. He told CTV News Channel Tuesday that he and other appointees have been given a “special responsibility” in their new roles.

Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Canada’s notorious residential school system, said his own responsibilities as a Senator include ensuring that the government is held accountable when it comes to indigenous communities.

“I have been honoured by the survivors over the course of the work I did with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to be able to listen to their stories,” he said.

“I carry forward with that sense of responsibility to maintain those stories and to carry them into the various places where I go, initially as a judge and now as a senator.”

Sinclair said he will “hold the government’s feet to the fire” to ensure that the TRC’s recommendations are implemented.

The other new senators are:

  • Raymonde Gagne,former president of Manitoba’s Universite de Saint-Boniface
  • Frances Lankin, minister in the former Ontario NDP government and former CEO of United Way Toronto
  • Ratna Omidvar, executive director at Ryerson University’s Global Diversity and Migration Exchange;
  • Chantal Petitclerc, wheelchair racer and Paralympic gold medallist 
  • AndrePratte, journalist and former editor-in-chief of La Presse newspaper in Quebec

Critics have questioned whether the new senators can be truly independent, given that Trudeau still had the final say on the appointments. Some are still calling for the Senate to be abolished, or reformed so that members are elected, in the aftermath of the Senate spending scandal.

“I think that the reputation of the Senate certainly has come under attack,” Sinclair said Tuesday before he was sworn in.

“But at the same time, as a country, we need an institution that will ensure that the partisanship that goes on in the House (of Commons) is not overriding the needs of all of Canada.”

Sinclair said he’s always understood the Senate to be “a place that will guide parliamentarians to ensure that they fulfill their responsibilities to all of Canada.

“And that’s the role I hope to fill.”