Inuk professor says he raised identity concerns with MUN months ago

A Memorial University professor says he raised concerns over the topic of "thinly veiled" claims to Indigeneity and the institution's response to identity verification to administration late last year.

Daniel Bennett, a Nunatsiavut beneficiary, has provided emails to CBC News from December that show he arranged a meeting with the university's vice-president of Indigenous mattersand urged the school to enact policies to ensure proper vetting, verification and recognition of Indigenous employees.

"Ultimately the university has to put a policy in place that its professors if they identify as being Indigenous there has to be a policy in place that's appropriate but also does the due diligence to ensure the integrity of the university is intact," Bennett said Tuesday.

It's not clear how, if at all, such policies would have made a difference in the case of MUN president Vianne Timmons, who says she feels she has always been clear in distinguishing that she does not identify as Indigenous but has Mi'kmaw ancestry. While her online professional CV did list her membership in an unrecognized band as late as 2016, the 2019 copy of the document provided by MUN did not mention the Bras d'Or Mi'kmaq First Nation.

Bennett started working at MUN as a professor in the faculty of business in June. He originally applied as part of an Indigenous cluster hire. As part of that process, he said, he submitted a letter of support from a former elected representative of the Nunatsiavut government.

While he wasn't hired as part of the cluster hire, he was later contacted for employment. He said he was never asked for further verification that he was Indigenous, which he thinks is insufficient.

"I did have some concerns, generally speaking, that some individuals were putting forth that they had Indigenous ancestry or Indigenous heritage, which would be distinctly different than being an actual Indigenous member of a recognized community," Bennett said.

'Webetter be prepared'

Bennett said one of the individuals he was concerned about was Timmons though he said he did not expressly name the president or anyone else during a meeting he had with Catharyn Andersen, vice-president of Indigenous matters,on the issue in December.

Bennett said he told Andersen he had concerns about identity verification and its implications for the university. He said he offered to help enact policybut did not hear back after his initial meeting.

"I said, 'I think it's coming. It's going to be at Memorial University at some point, and we better be prepared for that," Bennett said.

"Unfortunately, the policies were not in place prior to that happening, but certainly now this has been uncovered and the right procedures need to be put in place so it does not happen again."

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In a statement, Andersen said there is a process in place for targeted Indigenous cluster hires, including having to provide a statement of self identification and a letter of support from an Indigenous government, organization or leader.

"The university is cognizant of the fact that self-identification is no longer sufficient for targeted Indigenous hires, and thus we were looking for a letter of support from an Indigenous government, organization or leader," Andersen said.

"This additional step was to ensure that candidates not only claimed belonging to a community, but were claimed by that community in return."

Andersen said the letters were reviewed by an elders advisory council to verify the candidate was recognized by the community.

Her statement did not address wider concerns about lacking identity policies or practices applicable to any hire.

However, Andersen said, "we were confident in the information received that Mr. Bennett was a part of the Indigenous community he claimed."

Bennett said he became curious aboutTimmons's claims after she spoke at anevent in August to celebrate Indigenous hires.

"She said at the time that her great-great grandmother or great-great-great grandmother was from Conne River," Bennett said.

"I thought it was peculiar that she didn't know if it was [her] great-great or great-great-great grandmother. So it sort of caused a red flag in my mind that she wasn't truly connected with that."

'Implying' Indigeneity

On Feb. 28,Timmons said she has always made a cleardistinction that she never claimed Mi'kmaw identity, only ancestry. She said she has not benefited from discussing her ancestry or having claimed membership in an unrecognized band in Nova Scotia in the past. Bras d'Or Mi'kmaq First Nation is neither recognized by the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq or by the federal government.

"I have some major concerns when it's put forth in a public setting that you have an Indigenous heritage or ancestry," Bennett said.

"What that implies, without actually saying, is that you are Indigenous. And when I say 'Indigenous,' what they would typically would mean is that you're part of a recognized community, could be a band, a government, that sort of thing."

In a statement Monday, the board of regents MUN's governing body said, "While our initial understanding was that president Timmons did not claim Indigenous identity, we have received a lot of feedback from the community.

"We have received important questions about the president's actions, and we believe we have a responsibility to Indigenous peoples and a fiduciary duty as a board to explore these questions further."

Bennett said the sensitivity surrounding questioning a person's identity underscores the need for a clear policy.

"There can be exceptions where someone may not have a recognized membership in a community for a certain reason that was outside of their control," said Bennett.

"Maybe government intervention, being taken from a community, maybe not having all the direct knowledge of how to actually obtain the membership and go through that process legally, which can be complex, so any policy that will be developed in this regard would have to consider all those different elements."

Timmons announced Monday she would be taking a six-week paid leave of absence. During that time, the university said, it willconvene a roundtable of Indigenous leaders to discuss Timmons's past claims and membership in an unrecognized band.

"While I have shared that I am not Mi'kmaw and I do not claim an Indigenous identity, questions about my intentions in identifying my Indigenous ancestry and whether I have benefited from sharing my understanding of my family's history have sparked important conversations on and beyond our campus," Timmons wrote in a statement released Monday morning.

"I have been reflecting on this feedback from the Indigenous community, and I sincerely regret any hurt or confusion sharing my story may have caused. That was never my intention and I deeply apologize to those I have impacted."

As of Wednesday morning, details of the leadership, scope and timeline of the Indigenous roundtable were not available.

Timmons did not respond to CBC's request for an interview on Bennett's comments.

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