UBC said it takes "full responsibility" for its “actions and inactions” regarding its response to questions around former law professor Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s claims of Indigenous identity in an email to Indigenous faculty and staff at UBC Vancouver on Tuesday morning.
In the email — which was sent Tuesday morning and later published on the President’s Office website — UBC President Deborah Buszard and VP Academic and Provost Gage Averill said the university now “regrets” the interpretation of support for Turpel-Lafond in its initial statements.
“The press 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 email read.
In October, CBC published an article that said Turpel-Lafond’s claims to Cree ancestry do not appear to match historical records or anecdotes from Norway House Cree Nation community members, where Turpel-Lafond said her father was from.
UBC, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the Saskatoon Tribal Council seemed to voice support for Turpel-Lafond following the CBC article. Turpel-Lafond also released a statement that said she is an active member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation.
In its initial statement, UBC also said Turpel-Lafond’s claims to Indigenous identity were not a factor in her hiring as the inaugural director of UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC).
But, some Indigenous groups raised concerns about Turpel-Lafond's claim to Indigenous identity, with the Indigenous Women’s Collective calling on 11 Canadian universities to revoke the honorary degree they gave to the former law professor. Other prominent Indigenous women — like Marion Buller, the chief commissioner of the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls — also said they were considering returning their honorary degrees if universities did not rescind Turpel-Lafond’s.
Turpel-Lafond was a law professor at the Allard School of Law and served as the inaugural director of the IRSHDC until her term ended in June 2022. She also published the In Plain Sight report in 2020 that found systemic anti-Indigenous racism within the BC health care system.
In January, she said she had retired from her tenured position as a law professor in December.
Buszard and Averill's email comes a week after CBC reported on a leaked internal email from Averill to a group of concerned faculty members in which he wrote that UBC’s communications team released a “quick statement” that was not perfect in his opinion. Averill’s first email also said the university had decided to remain silent on this issue to avoid appearing like it was doing “damage control.”
In Tuesday's email, Buszard and Averill addressed concerns from faculty and staff that UBC's claim Indigenous identity played no role in Turpel-Lafond's hiring at the IRSHDC was false, with some calling for an apology from the university.
“UBC’s initial response stated that Indigenous identity had not been an explicit requirement for the appointment of the Academic Director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. While factually correct, it would have also been understood that it was an implicit expectation.”
Buszard and Averill wrote UBC is investigating its approach to hiring Indigenous faculty and staff — which currently relies on self-identification — and that they have personally had discussions with Indigenous scholars, community members and other universities on how to address issues of Indigenous identity in the future. Averill said something similar in the leaked internal email.
“The possibility that anyone might misrepresent themselves for personal and professional benefit, or that misleading credentials or publications might be submitted for employment, is one that we take extremely seriously, as these kinds of actions undermine the fundamental mission of a university, divert resources from deserving individuals and strengthen inequities,” Buszard and Averill wrote in Tuesday’s email.
Buszard and Averill said they will be in contact “in the near future” with Indigenous faculty, staff and students about engagement opportunities for these community members to share their concerns.
“We do not expect this letter to solve any of the problems that we face – we see it as a step along a path towards meaningful action in the future,” they added.
UBC did not comment further when contacted by The Ubyssey.