Memorial University calling for input on new Indigenous verification policy

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 07, 2025 5:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

Memorial University is looking for nationalist input connected an upcoming argumentation that volition spot Indigenous students and module asked to verify their Indigenous individuality earlier accessing grants, scholarships and jobs acceptable speech for Indigenous-only applicants.

The assemblage announced Monday it had completed a draught argumentation and would judge nationalist input for the adjacent 4 weeks.

Verification policies are "something that Indigenous people, present and crossed the country, truly are calling for," said Catharyn Andersen, MUN's vice-president of Indigenous affairs.

"There's a crushed wherefore we person those opportunities ... we should beryllium definite that they're going to Indigenous students and Indigenous people."

Memorial University would articulation 8 different post-secondary schools successful Canada that person implemented a akin argumentation successful caller years, she said. Those schools see Waterloo, McGill and Saskatchewan.

A last argumentation volition ideally spell into effect successful the fall, Andersen said.

Students and module tin inactive self-identify arsenic Indigenous, but immoderate backing oregon employment for Indigenous applicants would necessitate them to adhere to the verification process and supply impervious of rank successful a recognized Indigenous group.

The verification committee volition look astatine whether an Indigenous radical has designation nether Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act, she said, oregon whether the radical is recognized arsenic Indigenous by their federally recognized Indigenous neighbours.

"It incorporates Indigenous ways of recognizing 1 different arsenic well," Andersen said.

The argumentation follows the high-profile firing of erstwhile president Vianne Timmons, who for years claimed to beryllium a subordinate of an unrecognized Mi'kmaw band. After a CBC study successful 2023 connected the veracity of her ancestry, Timmons returned her Indspire Award.

Andersen says Timmons's lawsuit didn't punctual the assemblage to draught a verification policy, but it did velocity up the timeline.

"It's hard to reason that it didn't person an impact," Andersen said.

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