Mary Ellen Elizabeth Turpel-Lafond (born February 1963) is a Canadian lawyer and law professor. She has served as a judge and as a legislative advocate for children's rights.

Turpel-Lafond has been a legal and constitutional adviser to aboriginal leaders, including to Ovide Mercredi, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, during the negotiations over the Charlottetown Accord. She worked on land claims with the Indian Law Resource Center in Washington, DC. She has taught at Dalhousie University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Notre Dame, and has served as a judge on the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan. Time magazine named Turpel-Lafond as one of "100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow" in 1994; in 1999, Time honoured her as one of the "Top 20 Canadian Leaders for the 21st Century". Turpel-Lafond also served as British Columbia's first Representative for Children and Youth. In 2018, Turpel-Lafond became a professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She was later named the inaugural director of the University of British Columbia's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.

Turpel-Lafond faced public scrutiny in 2022 over a report by CBC News stating that "some of Turpel-Lafond's claims about her Cree ancestry, her treaty Indian status, the community where she grew up and her academic accomplishments" were "inconsistent with publicly available documents". Following the CBC report, she left her UBC role and many of her awards were revoked or relinquished. In 2024, the Law Society of British Columbia reprimanded Turpel-Lafond after she admitted to professional misconduct; the Society's report revealed that she had some Indigenous ancestry identified via DNA, but no ancestral link to a specific Indigenous community.

Early life and education Turpel-Lafond was born in February 1963 to William and Shirley Turpel. She has three older sisters. While Turpel-Lafond has stated that she was born and raised on the First Nation reserve of the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, a 2022 report by CBC News stated that Turpel-Lafond was likely born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Turpel-Lafond has stated that there was alcoholism and violence in her family's home and that she experienced poverty and sexual abuse in her youth.

Turpel-Lafond received a bachelor of arts degree from Carleton University in 1982. She holds a law degree from Osgoode Hall at York University and received a diploma in international law from the University of Cambridge in 1989. Turpel-Lafond was awarded a doctorate of law from Harvard Law School in 1997.

In a 2018 curriculum vitae, Turpel-Lafond stated that she had received a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Cambridge. When asked by reporters, the University of Cambridge stated that the diploma she had received is a substantially different credential from the LLM degree. Turpel-Lafond's 2018 curriculum vitae also indicated that she received her doctorate from Harvard in 1990; however, a 2022 CBC News report stated that she did not receive that degree until 1997.

Career Lawyer Turpel-Lafond has been a member of the bar in Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. She appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada.R v Pamajewon, 2 SCR 821. Turpel-Lafond worked on land claims with the Indian Law Resource Center in Washington, DC, and served as a legal and constitutional adviser to aboriginal leaders. During the negotiations over the Charlottetown Accord, a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, Turpel-Lafond was a legal and constitutional advisor to Ovide Mercredi, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Turpel-Lafond and Mercredi co-wrote a book, In the Rapids: Navigating the Future of First Nations.Ovide Mercredi and Mary Ellen Turpel, In the Rapids: Navigating the Future of First Nations (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1993); reviewed by John Steckley, Canadian Book Review Annual Online.

During a 2013 speech at a Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences event, Turpel-Lafond stated that she had received the designation of Queen's Counsel (QC) from the Government of Saskatchewan. However, both the Ministry of Justice of Saskatchewan and the Law Society of Saskatchewan report that there is no record of Turpel-Lafond being appointed Queen's Counsel.

Law Society of British Columbia As of February 2, 2024, Turpel-Lafond was listed as "non-practising" by the Law Society of British Columbia, the regulatory body for lawyers in that province.

Turpel-Lafond became a member of the Law Society of British Columbia in 2018. An investigation by its Discipline Committee in 2024 found that Turpel-Lafond had committed professional misconduct in relation to misrepresentations when joining the society along with testimony at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2018. According to the report, Turpel-Lafond inaccurately claimed to have been called to the bar of New Brunswick, said she had co-authored a book when no such book had been published, claimed to have been awarded an honorary degree from First Nations University of Canada when no such award had been made, and stated that she had been a tenured professor at Dalhousie Law School for 15 years when she was only tenured for two. The society's report found that she likely had recent ancestors with substantial Indigenous DNA, but had no link to a specific Indigenous community; as of July 2024, the results of the DNA test had not been made public. Turpel-Lafond admitted to professional misconduct. The society reprimanded Turpel-Lafond and ordered her to "pay $10,000 to a non-profit organization that supports Indigenous justice".Alessia Passafiume, Former judge with disputed Cree heritage likely has Indigenous DNA: report", Penticton Herald, July 25, 2024.

Judge In 1998, Turpel-Lafond was appointed as a Provincial Court judge in Saskatchewan. At the time, she was thought to be the first Treaty Indian to be appointed as a Provincial Court judge in Saskatchewan.

In 2017, Turpel-Lafond was said to be under consideration as a potential appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Children's representative After serving as a judge for eight years, Turpel-Lafond was appointed as British Columbia's first Representative for Children and Youth. In that capacity, she issued 93 reports and made 200 recommendations. In 2015, Turpel-Lafond called for the government to hire immediately at least 250 social workers for Indigenous children, in order to provide needed services and protect vulnerable children."Advocate says B.C.'s children in government care need more social workers now", The Canadian Press, October 8, 2015, accessed February 11, 2016. Turpel-Lafond left her position as Representative for Children and Youth in 2016.Lori Culbert, "The end of an outspoken era: Turpel-Lafond wraps up 10 years of child advocacy", Vancouver Sun, October 24, 2016.

In 2017, Turpel-Lafond filed a lawsuit against the province of British Columbia which claimed that the government broke a verbal agreement to provide her with 18 months worth of pension credits for each year of service. The statement of claim said the province had a history of animosity with Turpel-Lafond. It says a deputy minister told her in 2015 that "the government would treat her as a 'member of the opposition."Scandal-plagued B.C. legislature misinterpreted its parliamentary privilege: judge", Prince George Citizen, January 31, 2019.

Academic Before a 2022 CBC News report cast doubt on her statements of Indian ancestry, Turpel-Lafond was celebrated as one of the most accomplished First Nations scholars in the history of Canada. Turpel-Lafond taught law at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Toronto, and other universities.

Turpel-Lafond taught law at Dalhousie University. A 2024 investigation by the Discipline Committee of the Law Society of British Columbia found that Turpel-Lafond claimed to have been a tenured professor at Dalhousie for 15 years when she was only tenured there for two years.

Turpel-Lafond also held the position of Aboriginal Scholar at the University of Saskatchewan.Doug Cuthand, "Faking Indigenous ancestry hurts First Nations causes", Saskatoon StarPhoenix, November 25, 2022.

According to Turpel-Lafond, she co-authored a book with University of British Columbia professor Grant Charles in 2017 entitled Indigenous Customary Adoption and Reconciliation. Charles says he has no recollection of writing such a book.

University of British Columbia

In 2018, Turpel-Lafond joined the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as professor and was subsequently named the inaugural director of the University of British Columbia's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. She resigned as director in June 2022, while continuing as a professor at the university.

On January 3, 2023, it was reported that as of December 16, 2022, Turpel-Lafond was no longer employed by the University of British Columbia. Turpel-Lafond's departure from UBC was marked by controversy, with her stating that she "retired" from her position, a statement which UBC declined to confirm. The Globe and Mail stated that Turpel-Lafond was removed from her position at the Peter A. Allard School of Law "because of the compelling evidence that she isn't who she says she is".

Representations about ancestry and upbringing Background Turpel-Lafond has stated that she is a Treaty Indian "of Cree, Scottish and English heritage" (Cree via her father, and Scottish and English via her mother). She has stated that her father, William Turpel, "was Cree, spoke Cree and lived the values of a Cree person". Turpel-Lafond has asserted that her father was a Cree child who was informally adopted by a white couple, William Nicholson Turpel and Eleanor Rhoda Turpel.

Turpel-Lafond has also stated that she was born and raised on the First Nation reserve of the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba.

CBC reports In October 2022, CBC News reported that "some of Turpel-Lafond's claims about her Cree ancestry, her treaty Indian status, the community where she grew up and her academic accomplishments" were "inconsistent with publicly available documents". Specifically, CBC News reported that a birth certificate, a baptismal record, and a newspaper birth announcement all show that Turpel-Lafond's father, William Turpel, was the biological child of Canadian–British couple William Nicholson Turpel and Eleanor Rhoda Turpel. A cousin and an aunt of Turpel-Lafond have both told reporters that they had never known William Turpel to have either been adopted or have been of Cree ancestry. Joe Keeper, a Cree man born at Norway House who was a schoolmate of William Turpel, has told media that he knew William Turpel to be white and that he had never heard anyone say that William Turpel was a Cree Indian. Keeper further recalled that William Turpel's father was a white doctor in the community who had treated him for double pneumonia and dysentery during his youth. However, Turpel-Lafond's sister, Melinda Turpel, has asserted that her father was either adopted or was born as the result of an affair between her grandfather and a Cree woman.