New University of Sask. commissioned report tackles 'poison' of Indigenous identity fraud

One year after the University of Saskatchewan found itself in the midst of a national scandal around the issue of Indigenous identity, it has released a detailed independent report it commissioned outlining the extent of the problem and how to fix it.

Last October, CBC published a report raising doubts about U of S professor Carrie Bourassa's claims to Indigenous ancestry. She was suspended from her role at the university and resigned earlier this year.

In the wake of that story, the university asked Jean Teillet, a high-profile Métis lawyer, to investigate.

Initially her work focused on Bourassa, but after Bourassa resigned, Teillet turned her attention to the broader problem.

"It's poison. It seeps out everywhere and then everybody is tainted by it and everybody's damaged," said Teillet in an interview with CBC.

Teillet noted that across Canada, universities have focused on creating positions set aside for Indigenous people. She said the intention was good, but they naively relied on self-identification, which is essentially just an applicant ticking a box.

"The academy seriously underestimated the fact that so many individuals would seek to exploit that ignorance for their personal gain," wrote Teillet in her 84-page report. "As a consequence there were few checks and balances to detect or deter Indigenous identity fraud."

Read Teillet's full report here:

Over the past few years, there has been a growing number of high-profile people revealed to have been baselessly claiming Indigenous ancestry.

Kim Tallbear, an Indigenous scholar from the University of Alberta who has studied this problem, said she believes it's endemic.

"I wouldn't be surprised if 25 per cent of the people identifying as Indigenous for hiring in Canada are not," she said.

Tallbear said her conclusion is not based on specific research, which would be very difficult to do. She said it's based on her own observations and conversations as she has travelled the country in a wide variety of academic circles.

"You get the impression based on your own social networks," she said.

Last month, a CBC investigation raised questions about former judge and prominent academic Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who has for decades claimed to be a treaty Indian of Cree ancestry. CBC's report found that claim was not supported by publicly available evidence.