CP NewsAlert: Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond speaks out after award revoked over heritage

By The Canadian Press on March 9, 2023.

B.C. Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond listens during a news conference after releasing a joint report with the B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner about cyberbullying, in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday November 13, 2015. Another award has been stripped from Turpel-Lafond, the former judge, law professor and British Columbia representative for children and youth whose claims of Indigenous ancestry have been discredited. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER – Former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says she is satisfied in her “past work, identity and self-worth” after the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association stripped her of an award because it believed she falsified her claims of Indigenous identity.

Turpel-Lafond says in her most expansive remarks since questions about her heritage were raised last year that it is “liberating” to be freed of honours.

More coming.

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