UBC regrets its handling of Turpel-Lafond ancestry concerns
CBC
The University of British Columbia says it regrets its handling of the case of high-profile former professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who was the subject of a CBC investigation about her claims of Indigenous heritage.
Turpel-Lafond was a professor at UBC and academic director of the school's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre until mid-December 2022.
A CBC investigation months earlier raised doubts about Turpel-Lafond's claims of Indigeneity.
For decades she had said she was a treaty Indian of Cree ancestry but documents uncovered by CBC indicate she is of entirely European descent.
CBC also discovered several inaccuracies on Turpel-Lafond's CV.
In a letter posted Tuesday, UBC said its response to those allegations harmed its Indigenous community and Indigenous partners outside the university.
In a statement issued to The Globe and Mail on Oct. 12, the day CBC's story broke, UBC offered public support for Turpel-Lafond, praising her work as the director of the dialogue centre, and acknowledging her "deep connections with Indigenous peoples across Canada."
The university added that she was not hired because of her Indigenous ancestry claims.
"UBC's initial response stated that Indigenous identity had not been an explicit requirement for the appointment of the academic director … While factually correct, it would have also been understood that it was an implicit expectation," Tuesday's letter reads.
"The media reported UBC's initial statement as constituting support for Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, and the silence from UBC about that interpretation has been viewed as confirmation.
"We deeply regret the impact of this and promise to do more now, and in the future."
The letter goes on to say the UBC's engagement with the Indigenous community has been inadequate and the university will work to make improvements.
"We believe that we should have met more promptly with the UBC Indigenous community.... We are taking steps to do that now."
The letter was signed by Deborah Buszard, UBC's interim president and vice-chancellor, and Gage Averill, provost and vice-president, academic at UBC Vancouver.