Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond appears in this 2015 photo.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
July 25, 2024 - 12:28 PM
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has been fined $10,000 by the BC Law Society for making false claims on her resume.
A former member of The Order of Canada, Turpel-Lafond admitted that she knew "or ought to have known" that some of the information on her resume was false or inaccurate.
According to a July 16 BC Law Society consent agreement, Turpel-Lafond said she was a member of the New Brunswick Bar when she never was and claimed to have been awarded an honorary degree from a university in Saskatchewan that has never awarded one.
Turpel-Lafond made headlines in 2022 when reporting from the CBC challenged her identity as an Indigenous person.
Since then she has given up her Order of Canada and had 11 honorary degrees either rescinded or voluntarily forfeited.
However, the Law Society consent order does say that Turpel-Lafond had a DNA test done which showed she "most likely" had "very recent" ancestors who were Indigenous.
In the consent order, Turpel-Lafond said she identifies as Indigenous and it is her understanding that her late father was Cree from Norway House, Manitoba.
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The BC Law Society's issue stemmed from a resume she submitted to become a member in 2018 and a resume she submitted while testifying at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that year.
The legal regulator highlighted a series of inaccuracies in her resume.
Turpel-Lafond said she has a master's degree from the University of Cambridge which is "technically inaccurate" as it is a diploma in international law which is a "master's level degree."
The lawyer also said when she married her husband who is from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation she transferred her membership there.
"As the Lawyer was not a registered 'member' of Norway House, it was inaccurate to say that she had 'transferred' her membership to Muskeg Lake Cree Nation," the Law Society said.
Other inaccuracies were that she said she received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1990, when in fact she was unable to graduate until she cleared her student debt and didn't get it until 1997.
She also said she was called to the Saskatchewan bar in 1992 when it didn't happen until 1994, and she was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1991 when it happened in 1990.
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Turpel-Lafond said she had an honorary degree from the First Nations University of Canada known then as the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College.
"Its degrees were issued by the University of Regina, and it has never awarded an honorary degree," the Law Society said.
She also claimed she'd co-authored a book in 2017 but while it was written it was never published.
Eight months before the CBC story came out she realized her resume contained errors and asked the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls if she could correct it, but as the inquiry was closed she was told it couldn't be changed.
The consent order said Turpel-Lafond is remorseful and has admitted to her misconduct.
"(Turpel-Lafond) acknowledges that lawyers have a duty to be accurate and truthful, and that she ought to have taken greater care to provide accurate information in her application for admission to the Law Society," the consent order said.
She submitted six letters of support to the BC Law Society.
"The media articles led to a prolonged period of significant stress for the Lawyer. The articles caused extensive damage to the Lawyer’s reputation, as well as mental distress to her family," the Law Society said.
The $10,000 fine will to go an organization that supports Indigenous justice initiatives.
She has until Aug. 31 to pay.
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