Several Indigenous academics say calls for Queen’s University to apologize and create a process to verify the Indigenous identity of staff are valid and could be a promising step forward.
Recommendations come from an independent review of how the University of Kingston, Ontario values indigenous identity when hiring people. They follow claims that multiple people are connected to the school falsely claiming to be local.
Celeste Pedri-Spade, Queen’s Associate Professor and National Scholar in Indigenous Studies, said she felt “validated” by the report.
The 32-page report by the First Peoples Group, an Indigenous consulting firm, addressed “the clear concerns that many Indigenous stakeholders had,” Pedri-Spade said, “particularly about how the institution was not necessarily implementing ways to ensure that people are what you say they were.”
The report’s seven recommendations include the development of an Indigenous Studies Department.
They are also calling on the university to create a policy for the validation of Indigenous faculty that — at a minimum — should include citizenship or membership cards, plus a professional recommendation and recommendations from a family member and an elected First Nation, Inuit or Métis leader.
The report’s authors say the university should address employees who do not meet the new requirements, from finding alternative appointments to firing them.
Celeste Pedri-Spade is an associate professor at Queen’s University and a member of the Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation. She says she feels “validated” by the recommendations in Friday’s report. (Celeste Pedri-Spade/supplied)
After the report was released Friday, Principal Patrick Dean said the university would create a local oversight board to advise the school on how to move forward.
While the report’s recommendations are a good step toward addressing the harm done to Indigenous students, faculty and staff, Pedri-Spade questioned how that oversight committee would be set up.
“Are they going to work in a way that … addresses and implements these recommendations in a very timely manner?” she asked.
“Or is it another layer of bureaucracy … that’s more to cushion the blow, perhaps, to some of the people who quite frankly have flimsy or false claims about Indigenous people in the institution?”
Ardoch is not a First Nation: Report
The report also condemned the university’s continued ties to a non-status community in eastern Ontario, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, to which three of the staff and associates in question belong.
They include:
Ardoch is not considered an Algonquin Nation by the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council or the Algonquins of Ontario, nor is it recognized as a band or First Nation by the federal government.
“Ardokh is not a First Nation, although it positions itself as such,” the report said.
Weldon Coburn, a professor of Indigenous studies and political science at the University of Ottawa, said he was glad the report “says what needs to be said” about Ardoch.
“The group of first people really stepped forward with courage to speak truth to power here,” said Coburn, a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation and an outspoken critic of Ardoch’s legitimacy.
Weldon Coburn, pictured here in 2017, was a vocal critic of Queen’s University’s relationship with the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation. (CBC)
The future of the accused associates is unclear
Despite the report’s recommendation, Queen’s has not committed to permanently severing its ties with Ardoch.
“Queen’s recognizes that we have a long historical relationship with Ardoch and that there has been cause for concern by many … about that relationship,” said Janice Hill, the university’s deputy director of local initiatives and reconciliation.
The university plans to “review our working relationship with Ardoch and all individuals on a case-by-case basis,” she said.
Hill would not say what would happen to the staff members who allegedly falsely claimed to be local residents.
The CBC reached out to all the officials facing charges but did not hear back. The Ardoch Algonquin First Nation office declined to comment when reached by phone.
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