A Canadian Aboriginal community co-chair was forced to resign due to new news about the ancestry of his Aboriginal women.
On Wednesday, Suzy Kies, co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Committee of the Canadian Liberal Party, resigned from her post after Kies participated in the 2019 book burning project that raised questions about her aboriginal origin.
Case resigned through an official statement obtained by CBC.
“I refuse to let my story be used to hurt Justin Trudeau [current Prime Minister of Canada] And our political party,” she said. “That’s why I resigned from the position of co-chair of the Aboriginal Committee. “
“Despite harmful questions about my ancestry, identity and culture, I will continue to work hard to promote reconciliation and respect my family history,” Case concluded.
Due to the ongoing election campaign of the Indigenous People’s Committee, the book’s activities have resurfaced. Since 2017, Case has served as the co-chair of the committee.
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At the time, the event was carried out by the Catholic Church of Providence (CSC) and aimed to promote healing by burning and disposing of books owned by the Providence School Board that contained outdated and inappropriate descriptions of indigenous peoples.
Since Case was the first to initiate this activity, other participants began to refute the validity of her indigenous claims.
Lyne Cossette is a spokesperson for the Providence Catholic School Board. On Wednesday, she spoke with CBC about Kies and her involvement in the project.
“We believe his experience will guide us to take reconciliation measures,” Cossette said. “We regret that we did not study it further.”
Cossette also apologized for Kies’ participation in the project instead of being recommended because of her so-called indigenous education and background.
“We deeply regret the impact of this initiative and are always looking for ways to improve,” Cossette added. “CSC Providence attaches great importance to incidents, and we will make every effort to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.”
In September 2021, Case accepted an interview with Canadian Radio and discussed the ethnic background of her parents. Case said her father is of European descent, while her mother is of indigenous descent.
“My mother’s family comes from several communities,” she told Radio Canada in an interview in French. “My grandfather is Maliseet from St. Mary’s, New Brunswick, and Laporte is Innu. My grandmother is Abenaki from Odanak.”
According to the Citizenship Register, although Case’s father was born in Luxembourg, her mother is French.
After the interview, Radio Canada conducted an internal investigation of Case’s ancestry. In a report by Radio Canada, they found the citizenship records of Kies and Odanak’s Abenaki Committee. They did not find Kies on any band list.
“She has no indigenous ancestors for at least seven generations,” said Dominic Riccio, the coordinator of Societe Generale in Canada, which works as an independent researcher with Radio Canada.
Newsweek has contacted the Indigenous People’s Committee for further comments.
