Report recommends clear consequences for Indigenous identity fraudsters at U of Winnipeg

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Peggy

The University of Winnipeg is being encouraged to adopt clearly defined consequences for students and faculty found to have fraudulently claimed Indigenous identity for their own benefit, ranging from losing jobs or scholarships to legal action.

Those are just a few of the recommendations made in a report released this week, stemming from the efforts of a working group created last year to consult Inuit, First Nations and Métis people about the effects of Indigenous identity fraud and what should be done to address it within the university.

Laura Forsythe, an assistant professor in the University of Winnipeg’s faculty of education who served on the school’s Indigenous identity working group, said one of the biggest takeaways for her from that group’s work was the ripple effect on the people who worked with someone found to have lied about being Indigenous — ranging from feeling betrayed to seeing repercussions with their own work.

“We see years of work for collaborators being completely dismissed and disregarded as soon as someone is found to be a ‘pretendian.’ That’s unfair and unjust to the person who is Indigenous who did this work in good faith, and I think that people should be held accountable to that,” said Forsythe, who is Métis.

“People are taking this home with them every day, and it is far [more] long-lasting beyond the outing of a person who has done this identity theft.”

The report says while in the past the U of W and other post-secondary institutions followed an informal practice of allowing people to self-declare as Indigenous, “several recent cases of Indigenous identity fraud, notably in Canadian universities, illustrate that relying solely on self-declaration is no longer sufficient.”

The update comes after the University of Manitoba announced plans to introduce its own policy for faculty and students wishing to claim Indigenous identity, and after cases of cultural identity fraud at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of British Columbia and the University of Saskatchewan, among other post-secondaries.

It also outlines some of the harms caused by people falsely claiming to be Indigenous, including taking opportunities and resources away from Indigenous people, undermining trust in Indigenous communities and creating inaccurate representations of Indigenous interests by drowning out authentic Indigenous voices.

Caution on ‘fraudulent or illegitimate documentation’

The report’s recommendations include creating specific roles to oversee the process of substantiating claims of Indigenous identity at the university and giving First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities a central role in that process.

It also recommends that process take a flexible approach “that considers government documentation alongside oral history, community recognition, signed declarations, and ongoing cultural participation.”

But it also recommends being “mindful of organizations issuing fraudulent or illegitimate documentation” and the fact that some Indigenous people “may have been disconnected from their First Nation, Métis, or Inuit community due to adoption, urbanization, or other factors.”

The report says the university should also distinguish between “malicious fraud and cases where individuals have misrepresented their heritage based on mistaken beliefs,” and use restorative justice approaches when appropriate.

Some of the people the working group consulted also suggested that approach could include a formal, public apology from the person found to have made a fraudulent identity claim — an approach Forsythe said is important.

“I think that in our communities, whether we mean to or not, if we hurt someone, we should apologize for that,” Forsythe said.

“That includes sitting with folks. It includes sitting with those you have mentored, those you have collaborated with and owning up to, trying to repair that harm, trying to understand that impact, trying to mend that relationship.”

She said now that the report is public, she hopes the university will look at how to implement its recommendations.

“We need to be able to do something proactive that allows our community to feel as if we are being protected, our identities are being protected, and the people around us are who they say they are. And I think that these measures, whether immediate or the long-term changes that we’re hoping to do at the institution, will create that space for us,” Forsythe said.

“We’ve done a lot of talking. I would like to see a lot of action.”