Filmmaker Michelle Latimer.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
Nine months after serving the CBC with a notice of libel, counsel to filmmaker Michelle Latimer have dropped her defamation lawsuit against the network. As first reported by APTN News, lawyers for Ms. Latimer issued a notice of discontinuance on Oct. 25 in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Ms. Latimer, the director of the film Inconvenient Indian and the CBC series Trickster, originally issued the legal action against the CBC and four of its journalists alleging “malicious, high-handed and arrogant conduct,” seeking $200,000 in damages, according to APTN. In the latest notice filed in civil court, lawyers for Ms. Latimer wrote that “the plaintiff wholly discontinues this action against the defendants, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Ka’nhehsí:io Deer, Jorge Barrera, Angela Sterritt and Gillian Deacon.”
There are no details provided in the notice as to why the lawsuit has been discontinued.
A spokesman for the CBC confirmed to The Globe and Mail that the lawsuit has been dropped, but did not offer further comment. A representative for Ms. Latimer said that the filmmaker would not be commenting.
The issue stems from a December 2020 CBC News investigation that scrutinized Ms. Latimer’s Indigenous heritage, focusing on her ties to Kitigan Zibi, an Algonquin community in western Quebec. The story included accusations of exploitation and appropriation by members of the Indigenous community.
After the story was published, Ms. Latimer resigned from Trickster, the series that she co-created and directed. Meanwhile, the National Film Board and 90th Parallel Productions withdrew Ms. Latimer’s acclaimed documentary Inconvenient Indian from distribution, including a planned Sundance Film Festival premiere.
In an interview with The Globe this past May, Ms. Latimer said that her “trust was broken and called into question by how the CBC approached this story from the very beginning.” She also asserted her Indigenous heritage, saying that she is a “non-status Algonquin of mixed blood, Métis, French-Canadian heritage. And that’s what I can stand by with truth.”
In the time between the CBC story’s publication and her Globe interview, Ms. Latimer commissioned a genealogical investigation. The report’s authors, Sebastien Malette and Siomonn Pulla, wrote that the filmmaker’s Indigenous ancestry was confirmed through “two ancestral lines that run through her paternal and maternal grandparents.”
The authors noted that Ms. Latimer’s ancestral connections are “rooted in the small historical community of Baskatong that was known for its Algonquin and Métis population,” and added that the “family and oral traditions that have shaped Michelle Latimer’s Algonquin and Métis identity are consistent with the documented history, culture and struggles of a larger non-status and Métis diaspora located in the Ottawa and Gatineau Valleys.”
In an interview with The Globe, Mr. Malette noted the “contentious” politics surrounding Métis communities in Quebec, which are not recognized by the Métis National Council.
The second season of Trickster was cancelled by the CBC this past January.
In May, the NFB said that it, along with co-producers 90th Parallel Productions and Jesse Wente, “have been engaged in ongoing dialogue with the Indigenous participants who appear on screen, in order to explore an accountable path forward for the film. We are currently progressing in this process, which will include the NFB Indigenous Advisory Committee before a final decision is made.” A representative for the NFB said this week that there are no updates to share.
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