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"University of Regina Prof '… Was Not a Pretendian,' Says Judge" in Defamation Case Brought by the Professor

Eugene Volokh | 3.19.2026 4:44 PM

An interesting story from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Candace Maracle); a brief excerpt (though the whole story is worth reading):

A Saskatchewan judge has awarded an academic $70,000 in damages, ruling she was defamed by statements that she was pretending to be Indigenous to further her career….

The ruling said the defamation was not the assertion that she was not Indigenous, but the assertions that she committed fraud, pretended to be Indigenous and relied on forged documents….

In the ruling, [Judge D.E.] Labach wrote that he did "not consider the [Algonquins of Ontario] tribunal's decision that Thomas Lagarde [the ancestor through whom Coupal had earlier been recognized as being part Algonquin] is not Indigenous and, ergo, those descended from him are not Indigenous, as mitigating in this case."

[Coupal's lawyer Paul J.] Harasen said that in 2021-2022 [the relevant time as to defendant's accusations that Coupal had engaged in "fraud"], Coupal "had every basis to reasonably rely" on AOO decisions that she was Indigenous….

Thanks to the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) MediaLawDaily for the pointer.

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Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution. He is also the co-host of the Free Speech Unmuted podcast.

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