Canada's Biggest "Pretendian"
Canada's Biggest "Pretendian"
Liberal MP Marc Serré's mistaken indigenous identity.
Last month, the Indigenous Services Minister, Patty Hajdu, tabled long anticipated legislation that will address water quality in First Nation communities in Canada. A few years ago, this was a definitive priority for self-identifying indigenous Liberal MP, Marc Serré. He even publicly questioned his own boss, Justin Trudeau on the subject.
The announcement in December by Hajdu and the Liberal government was widely covered by every mainstream media outlet in the country. Several Liberal MPs attended the press conference and boasted about it on social media. Hajdu claimed it was a “historic day”.
But, MP Marc Serré was conspicuously absent or not invited to the announcement and his social media feeds did not mention this historic legislation. How come?
How did this founding member and chair of the Indigenous Caucus in 2016 become persona non grata for what is likely the biggest indigenous announcement of the year by his own government?
“Pretendians”
The 2020s is turning into the decade of the “Pretendian”. Every month we are hearing of a celebrity or public figure being exposed for pretending to be of aboriginal descent.
Last year a prominent former Saskatchewan judge and law professor was accused of being a “pretendian” by the CBC when they uncovered that her claims of being a treaty Indian of Cree ancestry didn’t hold up. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond would eventually step down from her role at the University of British Columbia and would return some of the honorary degrees she had received.
In 2020, award winning filmmaker and actress Michelle Latimer was exposed for incorrectly claiming Algonquin and Métis heritage. Latimer’s ancestry likely helped her cement a role in the Indigenous film industry. She was hired to direct two big projects for the CBC in the years before her fallout. Latimer had to admit that she had made a mistake after she was nominated for her film “Inconvenient Indian” and the National Film Board boasted about her native connections. She apologized and eventually resigned from her role at the CBC.
In October 2023, the CBC exposed the famous musician Buffy Sainte-Marie. Since the 1960s, Sainte-Marie has claimed to have Indigenous Canadian ancestry and has featured this background prominently in her work. Her ancestry led her to winning the 2018 Juno award for Indigenous Group of the Year. But in 2023, it was revealed that she was in fact born in the United States and is of Italian and English descent.
Liberal MP, Marc Serré
Before the 2020s started, a Northern Ontario MP was briefly questioned on this topic as well. Nickel-Belt MP, Marc Serré, came under pressure in 2019 for making similar claims as Latimer and Saint-Marie. Serré was among four federal MPs who were accused of misleading the public about native heritage by Canadian academic Darryl Leroux.
Leroux who is a professor at the University of Ottawa, published a book called Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity where he examines the phenomenon of French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined “Indigenous” identity.
Leroux is very critical of Serré and others who may have falsely claimed aboriginal status in recent years.
"This idea that all you need is a long-ago blood connection — there is a consensus in Indigenous studies, as theorized and thought through by Indigenous scholars, that this is not acceptable,"
"It actually is an attack against Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty."
When Marc Serré came on the scene politically to run in the Nickel Belt in 2015, he started using his supposed native ancestry right away.
After being elected, he was appointed co-chair of the newly formed Liberal Indigenous Caucus.
In the following years he frequently boasted about this ancestry on social media.
But then In 2019, things changed. Leroux noted that Serré’s claim of Algonquin status was based on a root ancestor born in the 1600s.
This was revealed in a voters list for the Algonquin in 2015 where Marc Serré listed Marie Mitewamewkwe as his root ancestor. According to the Algonquins and Leroux, Marie Mitewamewkwe is believed to be born around 1631.
Leroux’s research indicates that the ancestor Serré claims is shared by most French Canadians today*. But Leroux pointed out that “the large majority of French-descendants don't self-indigenize themselves.” Unless they need to, for political reasons that is.
*The population of “New France” or Canada in the 1630s was under 300.
When Serré was called to defend himself in 2019 he said:
"Growing up we considered ourselves more on the Métis side … my grandfather's brothers and sisters lived off the land … and clearly if you look at pictures, you see a lot of resemblance to my great-great-grandmother,"
"All my ancestry on all sides lived very poor, lived off the land."
Interestingly, in Serré’s campaigning and social media post prior to 2019, he never mentioned being “Métis”. He claimed to be “Algonquin” or “Aboriginal”. In this 2019 post he recognizes Métis as other people, before boasting about being Algonquin himself.
Even though in 2015, Serré marked down that his indigenous status came from a women born in the 1600s, he suddenly changed his story in 2019. He told the CBC that his indigenous ancestry came from his paternal great-great-grandmother (someone born in the 1800s).
In 2019 CBC took Serré’s new claimed lineage to an independent Montreal-based genealogical researcher Dominique Ritchot. Ritchot followed the line and found that the ancestor Serré was claiming was not in fact in his lineage.
When CBC showed these findings to Serré he said "I am proud of my heritage as a citizen of the Algonquin First Nation in Mattawa-North Bay." The topic of Serré’s indigenous status was never questioned again by the media after 2019.
Similar to Latimer’s claim, Serré was clearly mistaken or lied. Mitewamewkwe was not his great-great-grandmother. If she is related to him at all, it’s from at least 10 generations ago. And this historical figure is likely an ancestor to every other French Canadian as well.
After CBC investigated in 2019, they noted that Serré deleted a section on his online candidate biography stating he was a "citizen of the Mattawa/North Bay Algonquin First Nation and Métis of Ontario."
A couple of years later, Serré quietly presented a petition to the House of Commons asking that the Minister of Indigenous Services review all recently revoked memberships by the Algonquins of Ontario. Serré may have been one of the recently revoked members he was seeking a review of.
In 2021, the Algonquins of Ontario passed new eligibility criterias to weed out members who did not have a “modern ancestor” (they defined modern as 1897 to the present). This led to many people’s membership (likely including Serré’s) being revoked.
In the following years, Serré’s social media presence would clearly be different. He would no longer boast about the Liberal Indigenous Caucus (it’s not clear if he is even still on this committee).
On National Indigenous People’s Day in 2019 before being exposed, Serré proudly claimed he was a “citizen of the Algonquin First Nation”. A year later he recycled the same photos but he changed his message entirely. Seemingly admitting that his aboriginal ancestry no longer applied.
In 2019, he thanked dancers and drummers who told the stories of “our land and our people”. All posts after 2019 refer to the first nations people as clearly separate from himself or his identity.
It appears Serré and the Liberals know he was caught. Although he has not yet acknowledged his mistake nor apologized, he has changed his behaviour. So have the Liberals. The Liberal Indigenous Caucus does not mention Serré in their latest public posts.
While in 2016, the Liberals marked Serré as one of their most prominent indigenous faces now he’s not even invited at the table. Serré does not seem to be involved in any meetings or announcements with the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Affairs, Gary Anandasangaree. And was not even involved in the historic drinking water announcement by Minister Hajdu.
Gaetan Serré
One aspect that the CBC didn’t look into back in 2019 was Serré’s supposed aboriginal upbringing. In 2019, Serré claimed that his aboriginal ancestry came from his father’s side. Like Marc, his father Gaetan Serré was an MP for Nickel Belt.
But unlike Marc, Gaetan never claimed to be aboriginal. Not once. A search of over 10,000 words of speeches he delivered in the House of Commons as an MP reveals that the elder Serré only mentioned indigenous issues a single time in his years representing Nickel Belt.
In 1969 he boasted about the Liberal government’s latest programs which “would give special attention to the necessity of employment surveys among Canadians of Indian descent.”
That was it. We can forgive him for the use of the inappropriate word "Indian” for the era he was speaking in. But it was clear that he was not referring to himself as being an “Indian”.
When he passed away in 2017 his obituary speaks of his dedication to the community in various ways. It discussed the awards he received and his teaching background. But it does not state anything whatsoever about being part of the “Algonquin” or having any indigenous ancestry. At the time The Sudbury Star wrote a piece on his passing, but again did not mention anywhere that being indigenous or an indigenous advocate was something he was.
Apology, Acknowledgement and Truth
With the amount of exposing and investigating the CBC has committed to such projects, it is suspicious that they let this story go in 2019. Serré has never apologized since then and his last comments on the subject in 2019 didn’t even seem to acknowledge his mistake. His last public comments on this matter state he is Algonquin. But the CBC have let him off the hook. Serré’s strong defence of the public broadcaster in recent years may have benefited him with softer coverage on this important issue.
His behaviour since then clearly show he knows he was wrong. His statements have been carefully worded since 2019 and he has never mentioned being “Algonquin” since then.
Although they have been able to hide him pretty well, the Liberals have never formally removed Serré from the Indigenous Caucus.
Many still expect an apology. An acknowledgement of the harm that Indigenous appropriation does. Emails to Serré regarding his current aboriginal status or identity have not been answered at the time of publishing.
Serré frequently posts about Truth and Reconciliation. The movement towards truth about Canada’s past is incredibly important. Serré should start by sharing the truth about his own “Pretendian” status.
Rejean Venne is a regular newsletter providing insight and analysis on Canadian issues. Please consider becoming a subscriber.
Shared this one. We need him gone for good this next election!