Dalhousie University in Halifax has revoked the honorary degree it awarded to Buffy Sainte-Marie in 2018 after a Mi’kmaw student raised concerns about the harms of maintaining the honour.
The decision comes more than two years after a CBC News investigation into Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous identity.
The report uncovered a birth certificate indicating she was born in Massachusetts to Italian-American parents, contradicting earlier press that identified her as Algonquin, Mi’kmaw and later Cree.
Sainte-Marie told The Canadian Press last year she is an American citizen who holds a U.S. passport and was adopted as a young adult by a Cree family in Saskatchewan.
Sainte-Marie’s management did not respond to a request for comment by time of publishing.
Mi’kmaw medical student Aaron Prosper from Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia asked the university’s senate committee last February to revoke the honorary degree. Sainte-Marie’s appointment to the Order of Canada was terminated around the same time.
In his request, he cited CBC’s investigation, past instances of revoked honorary degrees at other institutions and the termination of Sainte-Marie’s Order of Canada appointment.
In an email to the senate committee, Prosper wrote the revelations about Sainte-Marie’s identity claims “have brought many mixed emotions.”
“These include sadness, betrayal, and honestly regret for not doing more to advocate for there to be a more local Indigenous person to be honoured.”
Prosper was on Dalhousie’s honorary degrees committee when he was student union president from 2018-2019, although he wasn’t involved in the decision to give a degree to Sainte-Marie.
Sainte-Marie received the degree in 2018 and delivered a lecture on diversity and inclusion. Prosper was part of the ceremony and made closing remarks as student union president.
He said in his university years he kept only two framed photos: one of him and his sister, and one of him giving a gift to Sainte-Marie.
Prosper said he questions the broader impacts of the recognitions Sainte-Marie received.
“When it came to [awards] like the Junos and Polaris Prize, who got passed up for recognition?” he said.
“People that are no longer with us that should have been given that opportunity?”
In a statement to CBC Indigenous, Dalhousie University confirmed the revocation followed a request and was carried out in December according to the Senate Honorary Degrees Committee’s criteria and procedures, but said it won’t be providing details.
The statement said under this policy, an honorary degree may be revoked if the recipient has:
Dalhousie confirmed in an email to CBC News this is the first time it has revoked an honorary degree.
LISTEN | Prosper speaks on identity following the CBC’s investigation of Sainte-Marie:
Prosper said he doesn’t blame Dalhousie for giving the degree but questioned why responsibility for explaining the revocation now falls on Indigenous people like him, in the absence of an explanation from the university.
“At the end of the day, it wasn’t the community that gave Buffy an honorary degree. It was Dalhousie’s idea,” said Prosper.
