The University of Toronto has revoked an honorary Doctor of Laws degree awarded to folk singer and indigenous rights activist Buffy Sainte-Marie after a university committee recommended rescinding the honour.
The university said the Standing Committee on Recognition came to a resolution on revoking the degree in April, after receiving a petition on the issue in 2025, and the Governing Council approved the motion on May 13.
The committee’s unanimous decision on the revocation was forwarded on May 4 to the Governing Council, who approved it on May 13, the university said.
The conferment of the degree in 2019 drew renewed scrutiny following a 2023 CBC investigation that examined Sainte-Marie’s public claims of indigenous ancestry. The investigation reported that Sainte-Marie was born in Massachusetts to parents described in records as white, while she publicly identified as Cree and said she was adopted into a Cree family on the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan….