Children’s advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond asserts Cree heritage after investigation casts doubt on ancestry

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High-profile former judge and children’s advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond issued a statement Friday asserting her Cree heritage, her first public response to a CBC investigation that cast doubt on her Indigenous ancestry.

Prof. Turpel-Lafond, a widely-respected scholar and the former B.C. Representative for Children and Youth, said in a statement that her father William Turpel “was Cree, spoke Cree and lived the values of a Cree person.”

“I am a person of Cree, Scottish and English heritage,” she said in on Twitter. “My name is aki-kwe, a name from the Rousseau River First Nation in Manitoba.”

Earlier this week, CBC reported that details of Prof. Turpel-Lafond’s where she grew up and her academic accomplishments are inconsistent with publicly available documents, casting doubt on her ancestry.

UBC backs Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond after report raises questions about her claims to Indigenous ancestry

The CBC report cited dozens of media reports that stated that Prof. Turpel-Lafond was born and/or raised on the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, while public records and yearbooks suggest she was born and went to school in Niagara Falls.

In her statement, she did not state where she grew up. She wrote that “there may be occasions when public statements about me may have been incorrect. I can only be accountable for confirming the qualifications that I provide to my employers and clients are correct, which I do. … My credentials have been vetted at the highest levels of our country.”

Prof. Turpel-Lafond said she has not benefited from her Indigenous status in her legal and academic career. “I have competed for every job alongside all other candidates. Although I often work in the fields of Indigenous justice and child welfare, I have never been awarded a position on an affirmative-action basis, although I support such hires.”

In a statement earlier this week, the University of British Columbia backed Prof. Turpel-Lafond, saying Indigenous identity was not a criterion for the positions she has held at UBC. Prof. Turpel-Lafond has been a tenure professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law since 2018. She was appointed director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre in April, 2018, with her term ending this past June.

There have been high-profile instances in recent years of Canadians, such as filmmaker Michelle Latimer and author Joseph Boyden, who have been accused of benefiting from opportunities intended for Indigenous peoples by improperly claiming Indigenous ancestry.

As B.C.’s first Representative for Children and Youth, Prof. Turpel-Lafond established a record as a tough, sometimes aggressive, watchdog who had first-hand experience with the challenges faced by many of the Indigenous children who ended up in government care.

Among her work advocating for Indigenous issues, Prof. Turpel-Lafond worked with the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) on several campaigns.

In a statement, the UBCIC described her as “a fierce, ethical, and groundbreaking advocate for Indigenous peoples,” who is not obligated to explain her ancestry to the media.