Buffy Sainte-Marie stripped of Order of Canada by Governor General

Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has had her Order of Canada removed, more than a year after controversy surrounding her Indigenous ancestry.

The appointment of singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie to the Order of Canada has been terminated by the Governor General.

The move was announced in the Canada Gazette, the federal government newspaper.

It says the appointment was terminated by an ordinance signed by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon on Jan. 3.

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.

Family members in the U.S. told CBC that Sainte-Marie was not adopted and doesn’t have Indigenous ancestry.

Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous culture was a central part of her identity as she rose to fame in the 1960s, and she was won awards including multiple Junos and the Polaris Music Prize in 2015.

Her official website once said 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.”

As an adult, Sainte-Marie was adopted into a Cree family after oral history connected her to the First Nation.

Sainte-Marie has said the CBC report contained mistakes and omissions, and that she has never lied about her identity.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2025