Questions around Latimer's Indigenous identity claims came under scrutiny after a National Film Board news release said she was of "Algonquin, Métis and French heritage, from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg (Maniwaki), Que.," an Algonquin First Nation in Quebec about 120 kilometres north of Ottawa.
CBC News exchanged emails with Latimer over a two-month period asking her to explain the roots of her identity claims. Latimer declined repeated requests for an interview.
Latimer said in the emails that she had believed she had a legitimate connection to Kitigan Zibi, was mistaken, and prematurely claimed a link without first doing the proper research to back up her belief.
Latimer said in the emails she drew her identity from her maternal grandfather's "oral history" and his connection to the village of Baskatong, a Catholic mission north of Kitigan Zibi, which had a majority French-Canadian population by the time it flooded in 1927 due to the construction of a dam. Census records reviewed by CBC News state Latimer's grandfather was French-Canadian.
Dominique Ritchot, a genealogist and researcher with expertise in French-Canadian families, reconstructed Latimer's genealogy independently.
Ritchot's research found two Indigenous ancestors — Marguerite Pigarouiche and Euphrosine-Madeleine Nicolet — dating back to 1644.
In her Facebook post Monday, Latimer wrote, "I stand by who I am and by my family's history, but I also understand what is being asked of me. I recognize my responsibility to be accountable to the community and my fellow artists, and that is why I have made this decision."
On Friday, two of the show's producers — Danis Goulet and Tony Elliot — also resigned from the show.
Latimer's claimed Indigenous identity played a pivotal role in landing the
Trickster series, which is based on the
Son of a Trickster trilogy of novels by Haisla-Heiltsuk writer Eden Robinson, according to details of how the project grew outlined in a
2018 CBC News story.
At the time, Latimer said she wrote a personal pitch letter to Robinson telling her the first novel was "medicine" and that the journey of the story's main character, Jared, "reminded me of where I come from and also where I had just been."
In a Facebook post on Monday, Robinson wrote that she feels "like such a dupe."
