Exploring Theme: "Indigenous Identity"

Edmonton MP resigned from cabinet last month CBC News: The Canadian Press– Randy Boissonnault, whose shifting claims to Indigenous identity cost him his job as employment minister, told a House of Commons committee today that he is not Indigenous. Boissonnault was called to testify at the Indigenous and northern affairs committee after a series of...

Jaime Battiste, seen here outside the House of Commons in October, says a proposed investigation into his colleague is an ‘attack.’ Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN.  APTN News: The Canadian Press- A Liberal MP says his committee colleagues are wasting time by launching a third inquiry into the former employment minister instead of focusing on important legislation...

Boissonnault allegedly wrongly claimed to be Indigenous. A company in which he was a co-owner also wrongly claimed it was Indigenous-owned. The Toronto Star: OTTAWA—Embattled Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault is out of cabinet in order to try to clear his name. In a brief statement issued by his office Wednesday before question period, Prime...

Employment minister says he’s not Indigenous — experts say past statements appear contradictory CBC Indigenous: Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault is set to face a new round of questions over his business dealings and family history at a parliamentary committee in the wake of a report that his former company claimed to be “Indigenous owned” when...

Employment minister told reporters he is ‘learning about his family in real time’  Employment minister apologizes for shifting claims on family’s Cree heritageL 4 days ago, Duration 1:52 Federal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault has apologized for misleading statements about his family’s Indigenous heritage after a newspaper report found Boissonnault’s former company, that claimed to be Indigenous-owned...

Mi’kmaq MP Jaime Battiste outside the House of Commons at the treaty commissioner legislation launch on October 10, 2024. Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN.  APTN News: The Canada Press – The chair of the Liberal party’s Indigenous caucus says Indigenous identity is “complicated” after questions have been raised about the claims of two Liberal MPs who currently...

Indigenous Services Canada’s top bureaucrat addresses topic in leaked blog to staff CBC Indigenous: Indigenous Services Canada’s top official addressed the “contentious issue” of Indigenous identity in the public service by urging greater honesty in self-identification, in a recent internal blog leaked to CBC Indigenous. “The key is to honestly tell your truth,” wrote deputy minister...

NationTalk: Policy Options – Britain and Canada shaped the definition of Indigenous identity and now some people use shifting definitions to assume it, to great benefit. When the French and the British started staking their land claims on Turtle Island, they also began what became a centuries-long, surreptitious and destructive practice of interfering with Indigenous...

Delegates also adopt resolution denouncing disputed Inuit identity claims of NunatuKavut in Labrador CBC Indigenous: First Nations, Inuit and Red River Métis leaders unanimously adopted what they’re calling a historic declaration condemning Indigenous identity theft Wednesday afternoon in Winnipeg. Delegates from Ontario First Nations, northern Labrador Inuit and Manitoba Métis carried the resolution by consensus, capping the two-day Indigenous...

APTN New: A video highlighting infamous “pretendians” plays just as delegates enter the Indigenous Identity Fraud Summit in Winnipeg hosted by the Manitoba Métis Federation, or MMF and the Chiefs of Ontario. “Because these people are after our rights, they’re after our resources and they’re after an opportunity to take from us what we have...

The Globe and Mail: The Canadian Press. Ottawa – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre found himself the subject of online criticism after posting photos with an Inuk elder alongside a caption about meeting with Algonquin elders on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Poilievre posted two photos to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday...

APTN News: More than 30 people attended a conference in Tsuut’ina, just outside of Calgary, to talk about the issues of people falsely claiming Indigenous identity. They have come to colloquially be called “Pretendians. ”Participants came from as far as Halifax to hear about how to deal with increasing false claims of Indigenous identity.“ You...

Novelist and essayist Michelle Good examines how what she calls ‘playing Indian’ allows settlers to “create us in their own image and to expect our collaboration in their effort to do so.” Book Excerpt Good is of Cree ancestry and is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Her novel Five Little Indians...