The phenomenon of individuals with fabricated Indigenous ancestry—colloquially referred to as “pretendians” or “wannabindians”—benefiting from claims to Indigenous identity was is in the news again this week, with Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Minister Randy Boissonnault stepping down from the Trudeau government’s cabinet for falsely claiming he was Indigenous.
It is time to stop blaming the people chasing incentives and start targeting the broken system that creates the incentives.
