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People singer Buffy Sainte-Marie has suffered extra fallout after returning her Order of Canada following allegations that she fabricated claims of her Indigenous ancestry, which she has denied.
The musician and social justice advocate, 84, stated she returned the award “with an excellent coronary heart” after being stripped of the title in February – and has now had two extra honours revoked consequently.
CBC, who led the unique investigation into Sainte-Marie’s heritage, reviews that she has had her seven Juno Awards and two Polaris awards taken away from her as she is just not Canadian. The Juno Awards are Canada’s equal to the Grammys.
She can even have her induction into the Canadian Music Corridor of Fame, which occurred in 1994, rescinded.
In a press launch, the Polaris Music organisation stated: “Our eligibility standards requires all nominees to be Canadian residents or everlasting residents, with proof of standing supplied via government-issued documentation, together with passports, delivery certificates, everlasting resident playing cards, and/or safe certificates of Indian Standing.”
The singer-songwriter is an American citizen and holds a US passport, however was adopted as a younger grownup by a Cree household in Saskatchewan. She beforehand stated she had lived with “uncertainty” about her parentage and unsuccessfully explored the likelihood that she was born in Canada.
“I’ve by no means handled my citizenship as a secret and most of my buddies and kin in Canada have recognized I’m American, and it’s by no means been a difficulty,” she stated.
Sainte-Marie instructed the Canadian Press that she made it “fully clear” to authorities representatives and to former prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau that she was not Canadian when she was requested to carry out for Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.
Final 12 months, a CBC information report for the present Fifth Property referred to as into query her Indigenous heritage, discovering a delivery certificates that indicated she was born Beverly Jean Santamaria in 1941 in Massachusetts, with herself and her mother and father listed as white.
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Variety reviews that biographical data provided by Sainte-Marie’s group over time said that she was born on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, whereas her 2018 authorised biography additionally states that she was seemingly born Cree.
The publication reviews that her web site additionally as soon as said that she was “believed to have been born in 1941 on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan and brought from her organic mother and father when she was an toddler”.
In a press release issued on Tuesday (4 March), the singer expressed her “love and gratitude” to Canada and stated she felt “overwhelmingly grateful that I’ve been in a position to make my contribution”.
She added: “It was very pretty to host the medals for some time, however I return them with an excellent coronary heart.”
The official residence of the governor common of Canada stated it had additionally terminated two jubilee medals given to Sainte-Marie in 2002 and 2012, each related together with her membership to the Order of Canada, which she acquired in 1997.
In an e mail despatched in September to CBC, Sainte-Marie’s Ontario-based lawyer stated: “At no level has Buffy Sainte-Marie personally misrepresented her ancestry or any particulars about her private historical past to the general public.”
She stated that any perceived consistencies CBC had present in Sainte-Marie’s story will be defined by the reality.
In October 2023, Sainte-Marie issued a press release on-line with the headline “My Reality as I Know It”, calling the questions surrounding her heritage “deeply hurtful allegations”.
“I’ve all the time struggled to reply questions [about] who I’m,” she stated, sustaining that she was “pleased with my Indigenous-American id, and the deep ties I’ve to Canada and my Piapot household”.
“What I find out about my Indigenous ancestry I learnt from my mom,” she stated. “I’ll not know the place I used to be born, however I do know who I’m.”
Sainte-Marie received an Oscar for Greatest Authentic Music in 1983 for co-writing “Up The place We Belong” for the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.
