Turpel-Lafonde won’t sue CBC over Cree heritage report that took ‘heavy toll’: lawyer

The lawyer for a former judge whose claims to be Cree were questioned in a CBC investigation says his client is not considering legal action against the broadcaster after the Law Society of British Columbia this week backed her claims of Indigenous heritage.

Instead, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond wants to “get on with her life,” lawyer David Wotherspoon said Friday, a day after the release of an agreed statement of facts between his client and the society that said an independent geneticist found she “most likely” had very recent ancestors with substantial Indigenous DNA.

It said the DNA test and geneticist’s analysis were provided by Turpel-Lafond.

“She’s not interested in looking backwards. She wants to go forward,” Wotherspoon said in a phone interview.

He said the accusations against her have taken a “heavy toll.”

Turpel-Lafond, a lawyer well known for her work on Indigenous rights, previously served as B.C.’s representative for children and youth and was a recipient of the Order of Canada.

She had also worked as the director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia, where she was a tenured law professor until late 2022.

Her Indigenous identity was called into question in a 2022 CBC News investigation that also found she had misrepresented some of her credentials.

After the CBC investigation, Turpel-Lafond was removed from the Order of Canada at her own request, and returned honorary degrees from several universities. Other universities rescinded their awards.

The law society conducted an 18-month investigation culminating in an agreed statement of facts released Thursday.

“The DNA test results indicate that genomic markers known to be disproportionately present in Indigenous populations are present in the Lawyer’s DNA sequencing results,” it said in an agreed statement of facts.

Aside from the findings on her ancestry, the law society confirmed Turpel-Lafond did misrepresent certain credentials, including the length of time she spent as a tenured professor at Dalhousie Law School, and ordered her to pay $10,000 to a non-profit organization that supports Indigenous justice.

A CBC spokesman said the law society’s report adds to its original reporting, which the broadcaster stands behind.

“CBC News reported that some of Turpel-Lafond’s claims about her Cree ancestry, her treaty Indian status, the community where she grew up and her academic accomplishments are inconsistent with publicly available documents,” Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs, said in an email.

“Nothing in (Thursday’s) report changes those findings. We welcome new information, which CBC News will examine as we would any new elements of a story that come to light.”

Turpel-Lafond’s lawyer said having “her identity stolen from her” based on incorrect information had affected his client professionally and personally.

“Her parents and her grandparents told her that her father was Cree. And she had an excellent career that was largely focused on doing work on behalf of First Nations, and she’s an expert in that area of the law,” Wotherspoon said.

“And then to be wrongly accused of not being Indigenous — just for anybody that would tear at the fabric of who they are. And it’s had a very heavy toll on her.”

He said Turpel-Lafond had not yet decided on her next steps.

“I can tell you I have encouraged her to get back to practice, because I think the contribution she makes to the legal community is enormous, and it’s missed,” he said. “But I don’t know if she will.”

Asked whether Turpel-Lafond would seek to be reinstated to the Order of Canada, Wotherspoon said they had not discussed the issue.

“It would certainly be nice if the Order of Canada folks recognized that she does deserve the award and voluntarily gave it back to her,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2024.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press