A Canadian college professor has lost her job after a media investigation found she had fabricated indigenous ancestry.
Carrie Bourassa was placed on unpaid leave from her position as a professor of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan and from her post as scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research after she was outed for falsely claiming indigenous heritage.
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A CBC report last month revealed that Bourassa likely had exclusively European ancestry, despite claiming to be a member of the Metis people and using the name “Morning Star Bear” when introducing herself at a 2019 TEDx talk.
Her employers initially stood by her, saying she hadn’t been hired “because of her Indigenous status.”
“The quality of Professor Bourassa’s scholarly work speaks for itself and has greatly benefited the health of communities across Canada,” university provost and academic vice president Airini said.
But days later, the university reversed course and relieved Bourassa of her roles and placed her on unpaid leave and said there would be an investigation “into the statements and information shared by Dr. Bourassa.”
Bourassa’s case is the latest in recent years of white women attempting to claim minority or indigenous status in academia.
In 2015, the former president of the Spokane, Washington, NAACP, Rachel Dolezal, was outed for faking a black identity. Dolezal had also worked as an adjunct professor of African American studies at Eastern Washington University.
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Massachusetts senator and one-time presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has been repeatedly criticized over the years for falsely claiming to have Cherokee ancestry. Harvard law school, where Warren has served as a law professor since 1995, claimed her as a minority faculty member.
