Buffy Sainte-Marie stripped of her Order of Canada by Governor General
The Governor General’s office has terminated singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Order of Canada.
The move was announced in the Canada Gazette, the federal government’s official newspaper in which it publishes the text of new laws, regulations and other notices and decisions.
The move comes after a CBC report in 2023 questioned Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous heritage, saying it found a birth certificate that indicated she was born in 1941 in Massachusetts and listed that both her and her parents as white.
“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 on January 3, 2025,” a short message, published on the Gazette website on Feb. 8, read.
Family members in the U.S., including a younger sister, told CBC that Sainte-Marie does not have Indigenous ancestry, nor was she adopted.
Sainte-Marie, 83, pushed back against the CBC investigation shortly after it made national headlines, saying the outlet’s The Fifth Estate episode was full of omissions and mistakes.
“Being an ‘Indian’ has little to do with sperm tracking and colonial record keeping: it has to do with community, culture, knowledge, teachings, who claims you, who you love, who loves you and who’s your family,” Sainte-Marie said in a written statement to The Canadian Press at the time.
She also said she “will not stoop to respond to every false allegation” and that she’d “heard from countless people with similar stories who do not know where they are from and feel victimized by these allegations.”
My Truth As I know it – Buffy pic.twitter.com/CZjBMOcKP9
— Buffy Sainte-Marie (@BuffySteMarie) <a href=«https://twitter.com/BuffySteMarie/status/1717609253199127019?ref_src=»
