IN JUNE 2021, an Atikamekw artist named Catherine Boivin posted a video on TikTok. It begins with a clip of a woman who goes by Isabelle Kun-Nipiu Falardeau describing “une femme Métis de l’Est,” or an Eastern Metis woman. In French, Falardeau explains that such women are “wild . . . you let them loose in a forest and they won’t have a problem,” that they have “hunter husbands” and don’t wear makeup. Falardeau was speaking generally, but she also calls herself la Métisse des Bois—the Metis woman of the woods. The video then cuts to Boivin, a mascara wand hovering near her eyelashes. “Do we tell her or not?” she says to the viewer in French.

Boivin’s question captures the growing frustration among many Indigenous people who have seen their identities not only co-opted for profit but reduced to cheesy stereotypes. Expert estimations place the number of people who have fabricated Indigenous identities at tens of thousands to possibly over a hundred thousand. Some of these so-called pretendians have made the headlines—singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, author Joseph Boyden, filmmaker Michelle Latimer—but the vast majority are not notable enough to warrant a media exposé detailing their deceptions.

In early May, Boivin found herself in a Quebec courtroom with Falardeau, who is suing her for defamation over a number of social media posts—what Falardeau has called a “smear campaign”—that, in turn, allegedly spurred an onslaught of cyberbullying. (Falardeau responded to fact-checking questions but declined to provide evidence or details regarding her ancestry.)

Can You Be Sued for Saying Someone Isn’t Indigenous? | The Walrus

Two court cases could reshape public discourse on identity, fraud, and free speech in Canada

The Walrus (thewalrus.ca)

IN JUNE 2021, an Atikamekw artist named Catherine Boivin posted a video on TikTok. It begins with a clip of a woman who goes by Isabelle Kun-Nipiu Falardeau describing “une femme Métis de l’Est,” or an Eastern Metis woman. In French, Falardeau explains that such women are “wild . . . you let them loose in a forest and they won’t have a problem,” that they have “hunter husbands” and don’t wear makeup. Falardeau was speaking generally, but she also calls herself la Métisse des Bois—the Metis woman of the woods. The video then cuts to Boivin, a mascara wand hovering near her eyelashes. “Do we tell her or not?” she says to the viewer in French.

Boivin’s question captures the growing frustration among many Indigenous people who have seen their identities not only co-opted for profit but reduced to cheesy stereotypes. Expert estimations place the number of people who have fabricated Indigenous identities at tens of thousands to possibly over a hundred thousand. Some of these so-called pretendians have made the headlines—singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, author Joseph Boyden, filmmaker Michelle Latimer—but the vast majority are not notable enough to warrant a media exposé detailing their deceptions.

In early May, Boivin found herself in a Quebec courtroom with Falardeau, who is suing her for defamation over a number of social media posts—what Falardeau has called a “smear campaign”—that, in turn, allegedly spurred an onslaught of cyberbullying. (Falardeau responded to fact-checking questions but declined to provide evidence or details regarding her ancestry.)

Can You Be Sued for Saying Someone Isn’t Indigenous? | The Walrus

Two court cases could reshape public discourse on identity, fraud, and free speech in Canada

The Walrus (thewalrus.ca)

IN JUNE 2021, an Atikamekw artist named Catherine Boivin posted a video on TikTok. It begins with a clip of a woman who goes by Isabelle Kun-Nipiu Falardeau describing “une femme Métis de l’Est,” or an Eastern Metis woman. In French, Falardeau explains that such women are “wild . . . you let them loose in a forest and they won’t have a problem,” that they have “hunter husbands” and don’t wear makeup. Falardeau was speaking generally, but she also calls herself la Métisse des Bois—the Metis woman of the woods. The video then cuts to Boivin, a mascara wand hovering near her eyelashes. “Do we tell her or not?” she says to the viewer in French.

Boivin’s question captures the growing frustration among many Indigenous people who have seen their identities not only co-opted for profit but reduced to cheesy stereotypes. Expert estimations place the number of people who have fabricated Indigenous identities at tens of thousands to possibly over a hundred thousand. Some of these so-called pretendians have made the headlines—singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, author Joseph Boyden, filmmaker Michelle Latimer—but the vast majority are not notable enough to warrant a media exposé detailing their deceptions.

In early May, Boivin found herself in a Quebec courtroom with Falardeau, who is suing her for defamation over a number of social media posts—what Falardeau has called a “smear campaign”—that, in turn, allegedly spurred an onslaught of cyberbullying. (Falardeau responded to fact-checking questions but declined to provide evidence or details regarding her ancestry.)

Can You Be Sued for Saying Someone Isn’t Indigenous? | The Walrus

Two court cases could reshape public discourse on identity, fraud, and free speech in Canada

The Walrus (thewalrus.ca)

I laughed when I first saw those two UK-ancestry Indian girls who’s mother had them ‘identify’ as First Nations in order to get tons of free grants / govt support, which they used to setup businesses and such… and the news was like “Why would someone do this?!?”. For the money and govt perks, obviously.

One thing I didn’t see much of in the article, were options to resolve the issue aside from a brief note about there not being many options currently. So what options do we realistically have to address the issue?

Do FN not keep a registry of their people, and/or do they not have established processes for third party’s to verify identity claims via a simple form? Like do businesses have an option, sorta like running a background check with law enforcement, to check an identity?

I’d personally vote to remove the incentive for the frauds. Race-based benefits that are so lopsided you have people committing fraud to get those perks, a situation that seems antithetical to what the Charter and democratic nations are built on: that all races are equal. Remove individual govt incentives based on race – no bursaries, grants, funding, tax breaks, etc. Have the fed gov supports be based exclusively on nation-to-nation type supports, sorta like they do with the provinces in terms of fund transfers, and base those transfers on the division of responsibility between FN and Canada, tied to the treaties where possible. Instead of having oblique benefits paid out to individuals spread across the entire country via tax breaks etc, have the funds be directly applied to ‘nations’ to fix things like drinking water availability. If an FN has no one living in their area, or if they free-ride off of colonial infrastructure that’s been built, they get less ‘national’ funding – sorta like if a foreign country came in and built a port for Canada to use, and we had free use of it, it’d be nuts for the govt to then up our taxes to pay for a new port… cause it’s already there and available.

So what options do we realistically have to address the issue?

We don’t address the issue. In the case of Isabelle Kun-Nipiu Falardeau, who is claiming to be ‘Easter Metis’ - even tho there is no such designation - the Metis nation takes care of it.

Race-based benefits that are so lopsided you have people committing fraud to get those perks, a situation that seems antithetical to what the Charter and democratic nations are built on: that all races are equal.

First Nations, Inuit and Metis people don’t get so-called benefits because of their race. They receive what is due to them because of the treaties the Government of Canada signed … and reparations for not paying what was owed, or taking all the children away, or failing to subsidize band schools equally, etc etc etc.