The Canadian government has stripped Buffy Sainte-Marie of one of the country's highest honors, after a news report found she had fabricated claims of Indigenous ancestry. The Oscar-winning singer's Order of Canada termination was publicly shared on Saturday in the Canadian government's official online publication, the Canada Gazette.
Canada's governor general, Mary Simon, signed off on the action on Jan. In an email to NPR, a representative from Simon's office said the governor general "does not comment on the specifics of termination cases. But the government's termination policy states its decisions are, "based on evidence and guided by the principle of fairness and shall only be made after the Council has ascertained the facts it considers relevant.
According to the entry about her in the Canadian Encylopedia , Sainte-Marie has identified as Cree from the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan since the early s and has long been recognized as a major Indigenous artist. The singer told NPR in that she did not see other folk musicians addressing Indigenous issues when she first got into the music business. But a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigation in shed doubt on the singer's claims of Indigenous ancestry.
The team said it tracked down the performer's American birth certificate, which stated she was born Beverly Jean Santamaria, in Massachusetts, to white parents. Sainte-Marie defended herself in a video statement she posted on social media at the time. That I hate sharing now, including that I may have been born on the wrong side of the blanket. The singer also said she'd always been honest about not knowing some details about her roots.
According to the Order of Canada website , since its inception in , the honor has been bestowed upon more than 7, people.
