Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond returns St. Thomas University honorary degree, president says
CBC
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has relinquished her honorary degree from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, according to a memo from acting president Kim Fenwick.
A CBC investigation last fall raised questions about Turpel-Lafond's claim of Cree heritage, which found that some of the prominent scholar and former judge's claims about her Cree ancestry, her treaty Indian status, the community where she grew up and her academic accomplishments were inconsistent with publicly available documents.
Fenwick's message said the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Honorary Degrees, along with endowed chair in native studies Graydon Nicholas and elder-in-residence Miigam'agan, reviewed documents related to Turpel-Lafond's academic resumé and Indigenous heritage.
It goes on to say the committee contacted Turpel-Lafond to give her the opportunity to respond to the issues so that it "could make an informed decision on the status of her honorary degree."
In response, Turpel-Lafond voluntarily gave up her honorary degree and the committee accepted the decision, according to the statement.
CBC contacted Turpel-Lafond for comment by phone and email, but did not receive a response before publication.
CBC also requested an interview with Nicholas or Fenwick, but in response, the university spokesperson, Jeffrey Carleton, sent the statement from Fenwick and said that it would be St. Thomas's "only comment on the matter."
Turpel-Lafond was awarded the honorary degree in 2017. According to previous reporting from CBC Saskatchewan, Turpel-Lafond's CV and a search of publicly available records revealed that she had been granted honorary degrees (LL.D.) from 12 universities.
One of the universities listed, First Nations University of Canada, told CBC at the time that it had never granted any honorary degrees in its 46-year history. The rest of the universities had released statements indicating they were looking into the matter.
Some universities have revoked Turpel-Lafond's honorary degrees, such as McGill University in Montreal and Carleton University in Ottawa. Turpel-Lafond has also voluntarily returned honorary degrees from universities including Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, B.C., and Royal Roads University in Victoria.
A New Brunswick Mountie testified he punched a woman in the face twice, but only because she had punched him while he tried to arrest her.
The City of Winnipeg is halting work to clean up the Manwin Hotel site following a Wednesday fire, after officials determined there was asbestos in the rubble.
A Saskatoon judge has now heard about the hours just before and after Taya Sinclair's death.
Two people were taken to hospital after a fire tore through a unit in an apartment building just west of downtown Edmonton Wednesday evening.
B.C. Premier David Eby, who is on a trade mission to India, says that finding new trade partners is critical to ensure British Columbians' standard of living doesn't deteriorate amid the U.S. trade war.
A program aimed at preventing homelessness on Prince Edward Island that was halted last year due to funding issues is back up and running again with support from the provincial and federal governments.
Large crowds of people lined up around the block outside a pair of packed community halls in central Alberta on Wednesday night, to attend town halls focused on the idea of the province seeking independence from Canada.
The sight of a cyclist in January in the Yukon can prompt confusion from some onlookers — but historians say bicycles were being used to get around the territory in winter long before cars.
On Prime Minister Mark Carney's first day of talks in Beijing, the government agreed to co-operate with China more on clean and conventional energy after years of difficult relations between the two countries.
The city says it is one step away from returning the Bearspaw feeder main to full service, with a final water pump scheduled to be turned on Friday morning — if the pipe continues to remain stable.
When David St-Pierre saw the snow outside his window in Brossard, Que., south of Montreal, he decided to chance the metropolitan region's shiny light-rail transit system once more.
A Calgary lawyer who falsified court documents and repeatedly lied to a client, causing the man to miss out on parenting time with his youngest child, pleaded guilty to forgery on Thursday.
The Crown has stayed an assault charge against Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Jeremy Tunraluk.