Singer Buffy Sainte-Marie performs onstage during Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at Golden Gate Park on October 2, 2016 in San Francisco, California. The University of Toronto has rescinded Sainte-Marie’s honorary Doctor of Laws degree, the latest institution to remove an honor from the Oscar-winning folk singer.
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Buffy Sainte-Marie has lost another major honor after an investigation challenged the Oscar-winning folk singer’s long-standing claims of Indigenous ancestry.
The University of Toronto has rescinded the honorary Doctor of Laws degree it awarded Sainte-Marie in 2019, according to the university’s governing council. The school said it received a petition in February 2025 seeking to revoke the degree, and its Governing Council approved the rescission on May 13.
The university did not publicly state a reason for the decision.
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But the move follows a series of revoked Canadian honors since CBC News’ 2023 investigation reported that records and family accounts contradicted Sainte-Marie’s public account of being born Cree on the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan and adopted by a white family in the United States.
Sainte-Marie has disputed the CBC report, saying she has never lied about her identity.
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In a previous statement to the Canadian Press, she acknowledged she is American, not Canadian, and said she was adopted as a young adult by a Cree family in Saskatchewan.
Buffy Sainte-Marie performs during the Bread & Roses Festival at the Greek Theatre on October 9, 1977 in Berkeley, California.
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The University of Toronto said its Standing Committee on Recognition reviewed the petition and unanimously recommended rescinding the degree. The Committee for Honorary Degrees endorsed the recommendation at an April 20 special meeting, and the Executive Committee forwarded it to the Governing Council earlier this month.
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Sainte-Marie, 85, is now one of two people listed by the University of Toronto as having an honorary degree de-recognized under its current process. The other is Duncan Campbell Scott, the Canadian poet and federal official who oversaw the expansion of Canada’s residential school system.
The decision adds to a growing list of honors removed from Sainte-Marie since the CBC investigation.
Her Order of Canada appointment, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, was terminated by ordinance signed Jan. 3, 2025. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences later revoked her Juno Awards and Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction, citing eligibility requirements and Sainte-Marie’s confirmation that she is not Canadian.
The Polaris Music Prize also rescinded her 2015 award for “Power in the Blood” and a 2020 Heritage Prize for her 1964 debut album “It’s My Way,” saying its nominees must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Dalhousie University in Halifax revoked Sainte-Marie’s honorary degree earlier this year after a Mi’kmaw medical student raised concerns about the harm of maintaining the honor, according to CBC.
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Sainte-Marie rose to prominence in the 1960s folk scene and became known for songs including “Universal Soldier” and “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone.” She later co-wrote “Up Where We Belong,” from “An Officer and a Gentleman,” which won the Academy Award for original song in 1983.
Buffy Sainte-Marie at the 2017 Juno Awards at The Canadian Tire Centre on April 2, 2017 in Ottawa, Canada. The University of Toronto has rescinded Buffy Sainte-Marie’s honorary Doctor of Laws degree, the latest institution to remove an honor from the Oscar-winning folk singer.
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For decades, Sainte-Marie was widely celebrated as a trailblazing Indigenous artist and activist. She performed at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in 2016, and her life and career were the subject of the 2022 documentary “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On.”
But the CBC investigation brought renewed scrutiny to her biography, reporting that a birth certificate identified her as Beverly Jean Santamaria, born in Massachusetts to white parents.
Sainte-Marie has said the report relied on fabricated accounts from estranged relatives and colonial records that do not capture the full truth of Indigenous identity, family and belonging.
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“Being an ‘Indian’ has little to do with sperm tracking and colonial record keeping,” she said in a previous statement responding to the CBC investigation. “It has to do with community, culture, knowledge, teachings, who claims you, who you love, who loves you, and who’s your family.”
CBC has said it stands by its reporting.