Memorial University of Newfoundland's governing body has removed president and vice-chancellor Vianne Timmons from her position. The move comes after Timmons announced on March 13 she was taking a voluntary, six-week paid leave of absence from the president's office amid public scrutiny following a CBC News investigation into her statements on her Indigenous ancestry and past membership in an unrecognized Mi'kmaw First Nation group.

In a press release sent Thursday afternoon, Memorial University's faculty association called on the board to "engage an expert on Indigenous identity to conduct an independent investigation, as other universities have done, into the alleged false claims of Indigenous identity and their broader implications."

"Memorial cannot investigate itself," said the release. 

Timmons told CBC News in an interview Feb. 28, and has reiterated in the weeks since, that she believes she has always been clear in specifying that while she has Mi'kmaw ancestry, she does not claim an Indigenous identity. She said she publicly discussed her ancestry to honour her father's wishes. 

But for a period of at least seven years, many of Timmons's professional biographies noted she was a member of the Bras d'Or Mi'kmaq First Nation in Cape Breton. It was listed on her publicly posted CV for at least five years. 

The group is not recognized by the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq or the federal government, though they say they plan on seeking status.

Timmons told CBC News she held the membership for a year, around 2009.

The membership line appeared in a biography as late as 2018, used for the independent advisory board for Senate appointments in 2018. The line did not reappear when she returned to serve on the board, which reports to the prime minister, in 2021.

It also did not appear on a 2019 copy of her resumé. 

You can read more in an article by Ariana Kelland  published in the CBC web site at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/vianne-timmons-mun-1.6803740.