Indigenous prof says UBC’s silence on Turpel-Lafond controversy casts ‘shadow’ on institution | 24CA News
Daniel Justice says he and different Indigenous colleagues had been met with silence by the University of British Columbia (UBC) for greater than two months, regardless of their finest efforts to boost considerations about how the establishment was dealing with the controversy round former UBC professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.
On Oct. 12, a CBC investigation discovered that genealogical proof indicated Turpel-Lafond was of totally European ancestry, regardless of the actual fact she had claimed for many years to be a treaty Indian of Cree ancestry. The investigation additionally raised considerations about false claims she had made concerning her educational achievements.
She not works for the college, as of Dec. 16, however UBC will not say why.
In a press release to different media retailers, Turpel-Lafond indicated that she retired to focus “on my health, family and spiritual journey.”
Justice mentioned he isn’t proud of how UBC dealt with this from the outset.
“The university comes out very strongly in defence of her at the very beginning,” recalled Justice, an Indigenous UBC professor. “All of the concern — the public concern — was protecting Mary Ellen.”
In a press release to the Globe and Mail the day the story was revealed, UBC praised Turpel-Lafond’s work as the pinnacle of UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. It declined to touch upon her Indigenous ancestry claims, noting that they performed no position within the determination to rent her.
Justice mentioned that strategy stands in stark distinction to how the college handled him and different Indigenous professors who expressed concern.
“There was not any public acknowledgement that there were other people who were hurt by this and other relationships that were hurt by this,” mentioned Justice.
“It’s hard not to look at all of that and not feel a little bit abandoned by the institution.”
Candis Callison, the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous journalism, media and public discourse at UBC, mentioned the establishment’s response has forged an “unnecessary shadow” over UBC.
She mentioned UBC went silent after its preliminary defence of Turpel-Lafond, quite than publicly acknowledging the seriousness of the considerations raised and committing to look into them.
“UBC looks like a very closed-door place for people to want to express concerns about something that affects us all,” she mentioned. “It doesn’t appear that the university took into consideration many of the concerns that were expressed privately and directly.”
Silence ‘a horrible concept’
An inside UBC e-mail leaked to CBC supplies some perception into the choice making course of because the college discovered itself within the midst of what Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason has known as a “full-on scandal.”
The e-mail was despatched on Jan. 2 by UBC provost Gage Averill to a gaggle of non-Indigenous professors who raised considerations concerning the rising controversy. CBC requested UBC questions concerning the e-mail nevertheless it declined to reply, indicating it “represents an internal discussion around a very complex topic.”
CBC’s story broke on Oct. 12. Averill mentioned that day was a time of transition for the establishment, noting it “was published by the CBC on the evening before our acting president, Deborah Buszard, took office.” After six years as president, Santa Ono had left UBC for the University of Michigan.
Averill mentioned the college acquired some questions concerning the story from the Globe and Mail.
“Although our comms team released a quick statement at the beginning of this issue, that was only a terse (and maybe not perfect, from my POV) response to some specific questions from a reporter,” Averill wrote.
He indicated that going ahead, the college had determined that silence was the popular strategy.
“The university has not issued a broader communication, as our concerns are foremost for our community,” he wrote. “I have just wanted to avoid any hint of the institution doing ‘damage control’ or responding in an knee-jerk way.”
Jean Teillet, a Métis lawyer and skilled in Indigenous rights legislation, mentioned that assertion is amusing.
“I love that line,” she mentioned. “That’s just like admitting the obvious. You are doing damage control and everybody knows it, and the fact that you’re hiding just contributes to that.”
Teillet, who investigated Carrie Bourassa and her false claims to Indigenous ancestry for the University of Saskatchewan, mentioned she realized from that have that everybody’s observing and taking observe.
“UBC’s got their head in the sand, it seems to me, if they don’t think that the rest of academia is carefully watching what they do,” she mentioned. “So this idea that they don’t have to face the music in any public way at all, I think it’s a terrible idea.”
In the inner e-mail, UBC’s provost Averill mentioned to the school that “anytime there is a credible charge of misrepresentation, the University would have to undertake some kind investigation.”
But he mentioned because of privateness legislation, he could not say what, if something, the college did within the Turpel-Lafond’s case.
“No matter how much anyone would like to know about such things, I am not permitted by law to say anything about any particular individual,” Averill wrote.
Callison is puzzled by that declare. She famous that in 2021, when the University of Saskatchewan confronted the same scenario with professor Carrie Bourassa, it introduced it was investigating the matter.
“Even just to say ‘we are investigating’ would have been a huge leap forward at some point during the last two almost three months,” she mentioned.
Callison mentioned she wrote personal emails to college directors and was a part of a gaggle of Indigenous teachers that wrote a letter elevating considerations as nicely. She additionally made her views identified publicly in a podcast concerning the Turpel-Lafond scenario.
Despite all of that, the college has nonetheless failed to achieve out to her immediately, she mentioned.
“It seems like UBC is just hoping it will blow over, but that won’t happen,” she mentioned.
UBC plans to attach with Indigenous school and employees
The inside e-mail mentioned that instantly after the story broke, the provost and the brand new performing president sought counsel from advisors.
“There was an early consideration of a meeting with all Indigenous faculty and staff,” Averill wrote. “But it was suggested that the issue was at the time too raw, and that it may not be appropriate to have conflictual and emotional discussions among Indigenous community members in front of university administrators at that time.”
Stephen Petrina, vice-president of the school affiliation at UBC, mentioned the concept that such a dialog is “too raw” is insulting.
This wasn’t the primary time UBC administration had urged restraint within the face of the Turpel-Lafond revelations. Ngai Pindell, the dean of UBC’s legislation faculty, wrote an e-mail to college students shortly after the story broke.
“While it is natural that you might wish to discuss the story with colleagues, classmates and friends, please be mindful of the potential that what you say may exacerbate a difficult situation for someone you are engaging with.”
Petrina mentioned universities exist to have onerous conversations about delicate and vital subjects, and so they try this all the time. Instead, he mentioned, the college determined “that an issue of false identity claims and false credential claims would be too raw, too sensitive for our faculty or staff or students to countenance and that the best approach was, again, silence.”
Averill mentioned in his e-mail that as an alternative of that broader dialog, directors determined to satisfy with the president’s advisory committee on Indigenous affairs as a primary step.
That assembly passed off on Dec. 12, two full months after the story broke.
Teillet mentioned that will appear like a very long time to attend for such a gathering, however that she has realized by way of coping with universities that they function on totally different time tables than the remainder of society.
“I thought I knew bureaucracies, because I’ve been dealing with the federal government for most of my career, and you know, that’s massive bureaucracy,” she mentioned. “It’s nothing compared to the knots the university ties itself up in.”
New coverage within the works
Averill mentioned in his e-mail that till that point, UBC had relied on self-identification to find out Indigenous ancestry when providing Indigenous-specific jobs or scholarships.
He mentioned that as a result of the college had employed B.C.-based teachers in lots of circumstances, “this system was buttressed by the familiarity that many of our Indigenous colleagues have with either the individual applicants or their home communities — thus, self-reporting was enhanced with community knowledge.”
But, he acknowledged, “this did not work in the case of Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who came to UBC from decades of highly lauded work for the province, as a former advisor to the National Chief of the [Assembly of First Nations], and with a reputation of an advocate.”
He mentioned this case has satisfied the college that it must develop a brand new coverage and that the college would start consulting with Indigenous school, employees and others within the new yr.
“This will not be a quick process, but we want to do it right, to be intentional and respectful, and to have it Indigenous led, but with strong support from the administration,” Averill wrote.
He mentioned to date, the president and provost have been advised by advisors to search for B.C. Indigenous views and “not to adopt made-in-other-province solutions such as the Queen’s University or U [of] Saskatchewan approaches.”
This is baffling to Teillet. She mentioned final yr, within the wake of the Carrie Bourassa controversy, First Nations University in Regina held a nationwide convention on identification fraud.
“The whole idea was to learn from each other and to not have to reinvent the wheel, as everybody gains more experience in drafting policies to go through this,” she mentioned.
Teillet is the creator of an virtually 100-page report for the University of Saskatchewan on Indigenous identification fraud. It is the results of her months lengthy investigation of the Carrie Bourassa scenario.
“So the idea that an academic institution is closed off to learning from how others have dealt with the same issue seems to me to be bizarre,” she mentioned.
Justice mentioned he is glad the college is trying ahead by planning to develop a brand new coverage, however hopes the college may also look at what went mistaken.
“It’s one thing to say ‘It didn’t work.’ It’s another thing entirely to talk about why it didn’t work,” he mentioned. “And the ‘why’ matters here.”
He mentioned he believes that the college is being cautious out of a “sincere concern to not make things worse,” however that it could actually’t ignore the previous.
“There are actually concerns about the integrity of the process with that particular hire,” Justice advised CBC. “I guess my concern is if we don’t do some looking back, how are we going to know what went wrong so that we don’t replicate it again?”
