Turpel-Lafond voluntarily returns honorary doctorate to Vancouver Island University | CBC News

Vancouver Island University (VIU) says it has accepted Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s offer to return the honorary doctorate the university granted her in 2013, according to a VIU news release.

“Turpel-Lafond informed VIU of her decision to voluntarily return the honour after receiving correspondence from the university that it would be moving forward with a process regarding her honorary doctorate,” the Tuesday afternoon statement said.

VIU is one of 11 Canadian universities that have granted honorary doctorates to Turpel-Lafond. 

Last year, all of them announced they were reviewing the honours after a CBC investigation raised doubts about Turpel-Lafond’s claims to Indigenous ancestry. 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.

After the story was published, a group called the Indigenous Women’s Collective called on the 11 universities to revoke the honorary doctorates and they all indicated they would consider the request.

VIU is the first institution to accept the return of an honorary degree. It said that given Turpel-Lafond voluntarily returned it, the review is concluded and the university will have no further comment about her.

“More broadly, VIU condemns Indigenous identity fraud and will continue the consultation process that is currently underway to develop and implement an Indigenous Identity Policy,” the statement says. “VIU will also be reviewing its policy and procedure for nominating, awarding and rescinding honorary doctorates.” 

The statement quotes VIU president Deborah Saucier as saying, “false claims of Indigenous ancestry cause harm to Indigenous peoples.”

“This is why VIU’s future policy on Indigenous identity will honour the contributions of Indigenous students, faculty, staff and community leaders and will include safeguards to confirm Indigenous identity going forward,” she said.