Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond returns St. Thomas University honorary degree, president says

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has relinquished her honorary degree from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, according to a memo from acting president Kim Fenwick.

A CBC investigation last fall raised questions about Turpel-Lafond's claim of Cree heritage, which found that some of the prominent scholar and former judge's claims about her Cree ancestry, her treaty Indian status, the community where she grew up and her academic accomplishments were inconsistent with publicly available documents.

Fenwick's message said the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Honorary Degrees,along with endowed chair in native studies Graydon Nicholas and elder-in-residence Miigam'agan, reviewed documents related to Turpel-Lafond's academic resumand Indigenous heritage.

It goes on to say the committee contacted Turpel-Lafond to give her the opportunity to respond to the issues so that it "could make an informed decision on the status of her honorary degree."

In response, Turpel-Lafond voluntarily gave up her honorary degree and the committee accepted the decision, according to the statement.

CBC contacted Turpel-Lafond for comment by phone and email, but did not receive a response before publication.

CBC also requested an interview with Nicholas or Fenwick, but in response, the university spokesperson, Jeffrey Carleton, sent the statement from Fenwick and said that it would be St. Thomas's "only comment on the matter."

Turpel-Lafond was awarded the honorary degree in 2017. According to previous reporting from CBC Saskatchewan, Turpel-Lafond's CV and a search of publicly available records revealed that she had been granted honorary degrees (LL.D.) from 12 universities.

One of the universities listed, First Nations University of Canada, told CBC at the time that it had never granted any honorary degrees in its 46-year history. The rest of the universities had released statements indicating they were looking into the matter.

Some universities have revoked Turpel-Lafond's honorary degrees, such as McGill University in Montreal andCarleton University in Ottawa.Turpel-Lafondhas also voluntarily returned honorary degrees from universities including Vancouver Island Universityin Nanaimo, B.C., and Royal Roads University in Victoria.