Academic claiming to be Indigenous says career built on merit

University of Saskatchewan Professor Carrie Bourassa, whose claims to have Indigenous ancestry were exposed as false by an investigation by CBC, says she didn’t take positions or funding from Indigenous people but built a career on merit, writes Geoff Leo for CBC News

A statement issued to media on behalf of Bourassa by “an Indigenous collective who chose anonymity at this time” says she is asserting her right to self-identify as Indigenous and has not inappropriately taken opportunities or educational funding from Indigenous people. The statement did not provide any evidence of the many claims Bourassa has made over the years to Indigenous ancestry, which were outlined in a recent CBC investigation.

The University of Saskatchewan professor, who has also served as the scientific director of the indigenous health arm of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, has claimed to be Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit, but the investigation found that she was entirely of European ancestry. The statement also failed to address her claims to have grown up as an Indigenous child, subject to racism and a whole host of social traumas like addictions and sexual abuse, which she said were consequences of colonialism.
Full report on the CBC site