Prominent UBC professor and university sever ties
Posted January 3, 2023 7:19 pm.
Last Updated January 4, 2023 6:23 am.
The University of British Columbia (UBC), and one of its highest-profile tenured professors, have severed ties.
In a statement to CityNews, the school’s director of university affairs said Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is no longer employed by UBC as of Dec. 16, 2022.
The university is not providing further on the circumstances of her departure.
The development follows an investigation by the CBC back in October, which raised questions about Turpel-Lafond’s claims of Cree ancestry and First Nations status.
After the investigation came out, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) promptly backed Turpel-Lafond.
“She has demonstrated time and again her commitment to human rights, justice, and reconciliation,” the UBCIC’s statement read.
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Turpel-Lafond discounted the importance and validity of the investigation at the time as well.
“I don’t check every media story about me or my experience/history, nor am I accountable for how media or others portray me,” Dr. Turpel-Lafond was quoted as saying.
The former judge carried a lengthy career into her position at UBC. Turpel-Lafond was appointed B.C.’s first Representative for Children and Youth in 2006, later becoming the first director of UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.
Most recently, she was a professor at the university’s Peter A. Allard School of Law.
