By Peter Christensen

Op-Ed Commentary

Recently we learned the CBC employs dedicated staff to identify and expose “pretendians,” persons who falsely claim Native bloodlines, in particular people with a public reputation or who have achieved success.

The most recent expose’ of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s identity stimulated broad public discussion. One frequent social media ‘commenter,’ who identifies as being an Indigenous adoptee who is mixed, wondered, “what the intentions are behind these stories that come out every few months?” Others were angry at the false imposition of identity. One institution was too intimidated to hire a Cree person from a long-established First Nations family because he didn’t have a Status Card.

In the latest CBC expose’ story, it was revealed that Buffy Sainte-Marine, a national icon, activist and celebrity had exceeded everyone’s expectations as to what a real Indian should be, except one. She was not an Indian. CBC’s dedicated research team exposed her as a “pretendian.” They showed us a birth certificate that said she was born to non-native parents in Massachusetts. Her lawyer claimed she was adopted and that the birth certificate may have been forged. Buffy said she did not know who her birth parents were.

Based solely on “facts” Buffy was found guilty in the CBC court of public opinion. This raised many questions: was a crime committed? What retribution is deserved?  Is the CBC going to employ a forensic team to investigate whether or not Indians pretend to be “white?” Is the CBC going to assign a team to investigate if persons of other races pretend to be of a background other than their own?

How can this be prevented in the future? Should everyone wear a government approved and verified race badge? Should government funded publishing houses publish manuscripts based strictly on race quotas? Will a federal identity police ministry like the CBC’s forensic race identification team be set up to investigate all suspects? The whole exercise reeks of good old colonial outreach.

I grew up listening to my mother’s stories from wartime Denmark. Racial discrimination was endemic, families were divided, some members Nazi, others not. She was working for a Jewish doctor when the identity police came and shut down the clinic.

Racial heritage, religious membership and geo-ideological beliefs have driven wars for thousands of years and continue to do so.

In modern times the rapid imposition of mercantile values on less formal societies resulted in segregated and marginalized people. It created heartbreak, conflict and division. The realization that marginalized people needed to find their way into the mainstream in the context of their own background, spiritual identities and culture took much too long and it also stimulated discrimination.

Pluralism, that is a condition where two or more systems or states co-exist, requires great tolerance; there is agreement I hope that discriminatory practices based on race that limit opportunity need to be identified and playing fields leveled.

It has not been easy to find a universally acceptable context within which people from different backgrounds can participate while retaining their religious beliefs and cultural practices. Secular democracy has offered a possible pathway.

That said, I am not convinced that defining racial preferences in law is a peaceful way forward. As long as people can be what they want to be and “government” stays out of it, there is hope for equanimity.

It is a good thing to encourage and educate for egalitarian values, it is another to investigate, accuse and publicize “facts” that create anger, division, hard feelings and instability. History bears this out. If a particular group is aggrieved with regards to someone’s identity let them bring forward their argument and settle it with the accused in a court of law, not the sensationalist and uninformed court of public opinion.

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– Peter Christensen is a Columbia Valley based writer and poet.

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