Lynn Beyak claimed she was Métis during her anti-racism training sessions | CBC News

Ontario Sen. Lynn Beyak is again facing suspension from the Red Chamber for failing to complete her anti-racism training — a project that started off on the wrong foot when she told her instructors she was Métis because her parents had adopted an Indigenous child.

The Senate’s ethics committee has released details of Beyak’s ill-fated training sessions with the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC) last fall.

Beyak was supposed to attend three days of Indigenous “cultural competency training.” But trainers feared she would make little progress in understanding the plight of Indigenous peoples because, on her first day of training, she made dubious claims about her own ancestry, according to an October 2019 report prepared by the OFIFC.

Métis peoples are a distinct subsection of the larger Indigenous community. While definitions vary, the federal government generally classifies Métis people as those who can trace their lineage to the Red River settlement and the intermarriages there between European settlers and local Indigenous women that produced a distinct culture, with its own traditions and language.

“Beyak explained that her Métis identity resulted from her family’s adoption of an Indigenous child (her adopted sister). The senator’s understanding and presentation of her Metis identity were flagged as a concern by the trainers … and by other participants,” said Nicole Meawasige, the training coordinator, in an email to Senate Ethics Officer Pierre Legault.

‘Stay away from our nation’

Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand said Beyak’s “weird and strange sudden pronouncement” of Métis ancestry is offensive.

“I want to say in the strongest terms possible that even if she were Métis, the Métis Nation would disavow all of th