A leading researcher on Indigenous identity fraud has been ordered to pay damages and legal fees in a defamation suit filed by a University of Regina academic.
Plaintiff Michelle Coupal says Darryl Leroux defamed her when publicly stating she used a false Indigenous identity to become an expert in reconciliation.
According to the decision, Coupal began identifying as Indigenous in 2010 based on a belief that she had an Algonquin ancestor from the early 1800s. She was initially accepted by the Algonquin nation.
In 2018 she was appointed Canada Research Chair in Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous Literatures.
In a 2023 purge, the Algonquin Nation removed Thomas Legarde from their root ancestor list, saying the man was French and wrongly identified as Algonquin. Coupal and more than a thousand others lost him as their link to the nation.
In his March 11 ruling, Judge D.E. Labach found Coupal didn’t maliciously claim indigeneity — she believed it to be true.
Coupal declined to be interviewed. Her lawyer, Paul Harasen, said in a statement, “Leroux was not found liable because of his statements that (Coupal) isn’t Indigenous. He was found liable because he went much further and repeatedly stated that she committed fraud. Those are two very different things.”
This story includes reporting from Global News. WestNet News may update this story as more information becomes available.
