Saskatchewan professor on leave after Indigenous identity called into question

The University of Saskatchewan has placed a health professor on leave and suspended her duties in its College of Medicine after questions arose about her Indigenous identity.

Carrie Bourassa, one of Canada's foremost researchers in Indigenous health, is being accused of not being Indigenous at all.

A CBC News investigation revealed her genealogy as eastern European. In the past, she has claimed to be Anishinaabe and Metis.

Saskatchewan professors, colleagues of Bourassa, also worked to trace her lineage.

"What we found is that Dr. Carrie Bourassa doesn't have a drop of Indigenous blood in her and that she has been faking her identity for at least 20 years," Winona Wheeler, associate professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, told APTN on Monday.