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Oscar-winning songwriter and Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Buffy Sainte-Marie has been stripped of her prestigious Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. The Toronto Star reported the termination of her appointment late Friday.

She is being accused of being a "Pretendian," a term used to describe individuals falsely claiming Indigenous heritage.

Ken MacKillop, Secretary General of the Order of Canada, issued the official notice that

 "Notice is hereby given that the appointment of Buffy Sainte-Marie to the Order of Canada was terminated by Ordinance signed by the Governor General [Mary Simon] on January 3, 2025."

Investigation of Buffy Sainte-Marie

While no official reason for the termination was provided, speculation centers around an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s "Fifth Estate." The report, published on October 27, 2023, and viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube, alleges that Sainte-Marie fabricated her Indigenous identity.

The documentary presented a birth certificate showing her place of birth as Boston, Massachusetts, listing her race as "white" and her birth name as Beverly Jean Santamaria.

A representative from the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General declined to comment on specific details but emphasized that termination decisions are made based on evidence and fairness.

Since the Order’s inception in 1967, more than 7,600 people have been honored, but only eight terminations have occurred.

https://usaherald.com/buku-abi-a-survivors-journey/

Music and Activism

Sainte-Marie, who turns 84 on February 20, has been a prominent musician and activist for six decades. She has released 16 studio albums, often addressing themes of war and Indigenous rights. Her most recent album, Medicine Songs (2017), features both new and re-recorded tracks.

Over the years, her biography has stated that she was born on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan.

Her 2018 authorized biography suggested she was likely born Cree, and her website once claimed she was "believed to have been born in 1941 on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan and taken from her biological parents when she was an infant."

Her story was tied to the "Sixties Scoop," a dark chapter in Canadian history where Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and placed with non-Indigenous adoptive parents.

Sainte-Marie has long stated that she does not know where she was born and has never had her birth certificate. However, she was formally adopted into the Piapot First Nation in her early 20s.

Pretendian Allegations 

The Fifth Estate investigation, a Canadian equivalent of 60 Minutes, claims to have uncovered evidence that Sainte-Marie is of Italian-American descent. And it is alleged she pressured family members to conceal this information when she launched her music career in the 1960s. Several of her relatives were interviewed as part of the investigation.