Mysterious
letter linking 1,000 people to $1B Algonquin treaty likely fake, CBC
investigation finds
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Author
of conspiracy theory books says letter was dropped in his mailbox in 2011
Geoff Leo · CBC News · Posted:
Aug 09, 2021 2:00 AM CT | Last Updated: August 9
According to Bill
Mann, this letter, written in 1845 by a Catholic priest named Father Brunet,
contains proof that Thomas Lagarde dit St. Jean is Algonquin. Mann says Lagarde
is his great-great-great-grandfather. (Templar Sanctuaries in North
America)
Bill Mann says that in the fall of 2011, he received an envelope containing
an 8½ x 11 colour photo of a letter written on what appeared to be animal skin.
According to him, the letter, dated June 23, 1845, came from the Saint
Sulpice Seminary in Montreal and had been damaged by fire and water.
"Thankfully the writing was still discernible," said Mann, a
former chief administrative officer for the town of Milton, Ont., a
prolific author of conspiracy theory books and a member of secret societies.
The supposed author of the letter, a Catholic priest named Father
Brunet, told his Montreal-based bishop that during his missionary travels up
the Ottawa River, he had come across a young voyageur named Thomas Lagarde dit
St. Jean.
Brunet wrote that Lagarde was "descended from Algonquins."
This one phrase seemed to be the sort of evidence Mann and his family had been
looking for.
Lagarde, it turns out, is Mann's great-great-great grandfather. At the
time the letter arrived on Mann's doorstep, Lagarde was officially considered
to be Algonquin and a "root ancestor" for Mann and about 1,000 others
related to him, which qualified them as Algonquin.
But that status was being threatened at the time, as some were
attempting to push Lagarde off the root ancestor list.
"Substantial amounts of documentation... demonstrate that Thomas
Lagarde was actually just French," said Veldon Coburn, an Algonquin
professor at the University of Ottawa's Institute of Indigenous Research and
Studies. "There was no hint of him being Indigenous, let alone being
Algonquin, in any documentation."
Until his
retirement in 2019, Bill Mann was the chief administrative officer for the town
of Milton, Ont. (Graham Paine/Metroland)
Chief Lance Haymond of the Kebaowek First Nation, a federally recognized
Algonquin reserve in Quebec, said Lagarde is part of a trend in which people
falsely claim to be Indigenous based on dubious evidence.
"It's brought in a whole number of people who are not First Nation
and not Algonquin on the basis of a tenuous tie to a root ancestor," he said.
The issue has blown up at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.,
after an anonymous report identified six faculty as "falsely claiming
Indigenous (primarily Algonquin) identities." On Twitter, an anonymous
account claims more than 30 high-profile academics, artists and political
figures are "pretend Indians," including a Saskatchewan
university professor who traces her roots to Lagarde.
The question of who can legitimately claim to be Algonquin in Ontario is
crucial right now, because a massive land claim treaty is in the final stage of
negotiations and only bona fide Algonquins can take part.
WATCH: The investigation into a mysterious letter:
Mysterious letter
1 month ago
2:53
A CBC investigation
has cast doubt on the authenticity of a document that has been used by 1,000
people as evidence they are truly Algonquin and rightful beneficiaries of a
nearly billion-dollar land claim agreement. 2:53
Mann is adamant that the Father Brunet letter proves Lagarde and his
descendents are truly Algonquin and therefore are rightful beneficiaries. But
Coburn derides it as a "magical letter" that showed up to provide
Mann and his relatives with evidence they had been lacking.
"At the 11th hour, just coming in to save the day, a mysterious
letter shows up," said Coburn.
Given the importance of this pivotal letter, CBC undertook an
investigation involving handwriting analysis, archival research, historical
review and extensive interviews. Experts suggested that the letter is highly
suspicious and likely not authentic.
Critics are 'native
trolls': Mann
For decades, the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) have been working toward a
treaty with the governments of Canada and Ontario. The deal, which is near completion,
involves 522 square kilometres of land and almost $1 billion.
The AOO's lawyer and chief negotiator, Robert Potts, said the money
won't go to individuals but will be placed in a trust account and used for the
benefit of Algonquin people. Currently, there are about 8,000 Algonquin people
on the proposed beneficiaries list.
In an email to CBC, Mann described opponents of Lagarde as "native
trolls" motivated by the money and power at stake in the land claim
agreement. He said some critics will "never be satisfied until the Lagarde
group is bumped from the beneficiary list," so that there are fewer people
to share the settlement.
Spurred by the controversy about Lagarde's lineage, the AOO scheduled a
hearing in early 2013 to consider the evidence and decide whether Lagarde was
or was not Algonquin.
As the date of the hearing approached, Mann decided to make the Father
Brunet letter available as evidence. Over the course of several interviews with
CBC, he provided shifting stories about how precisely he delivered it to the
hearing.
In 2013, retired
Ontario Superior Court Justice James Chadwick adjudicated a hearing into
Lagarde's genealogy. (Richard Lussier/Helpourstudentsprogram.com)
He first said he gave it to the hearing officer. In another interview,
he claimed he delivered it to AOO lawyer Robert Potts after a phone
conversation with him. In a third interview, Mann said he sent it to the AOO
anonymously.
Eventually, CBC learned the letter was delivered to the hearing by
Mann's sister, Cheryl Fitzgibbon.
CBC asked Mann why his story changed over time and why he failed to
mention his sister's role. After having done three hours of recorded interviews
with CBC, he cut off contact.
Fitzgibbon declined a request for an interview.
The Feb. 11, 2013, hearing was adjudicated by retired Ontario Superior
Court Justice James Chadwick. He heard evidence from genealogists that birth,
marriage and census records all spoke with a consistent voice, indicating
Lagarde was French, not Algonquin.
While some oral testimony that was offered suggested Lagarde may have
been Algonquin, the only document offered as evidence was the Father Brunet
letter, and to Chadwick, it was persuasive.
"Based upon all the evidence, and in particular the new evidence of
correspondence between Father Brunet to the Bishop of Montréal dated 1845… I am
satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Thomas Saint Jean dit Laguarde
is an Algonquin Ancestor," wrote Chadwick in his March 31, 2013 decision.
The Da Vinci Code
connection
Coburn said that when he came across Chadwick's written decision, he was
baffled and decided he needed to examine the letter himself.
He couldn't find a copy, as it wasn't made public. He asked the AOO for
it but the organization refused.
During CBC's investigation, Coburn mentioned that he had Googled the
text of the letter, which directed him to Templar Sanctuaries in North
America, published in 2016, which Coburn described as a "strange"
history book about the Knights Templar, a secretive society of Masons.
Bill Mann's 2016
book Templar Sanctuaries in North America contains a photo of the Father Brunet
letter, and describes how Mann got it and how it fits into his view of the
Knights Templar and their role in the history of North America. (Destiny
Books/Innertraditions.com)
Coburn didn't buy the book, but CBC ordered it. The author, it turns
out, is Bill Mann.
Templar Sanctuaries in North America contains a photo of
the letter, and describes how Mann got it and how it fits into his peculiar
view of the Knights Templar and their role in the history of North America. At
the time, Mann was the grand historian of the Sovereign Great Priory of
Canada, the governing body of the Knights Templar, and the book is part of his
series on the group.
The book claims that through a complex series of secret codes, paintings
and maps, Mann has identified the location of a sacred vault "where the
major portion of the lost treasure of the Templars remains to this day."
(It's somewhere in Montana.) He also claims to have discovered that the
descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene are secretly hiding out in Montana,
"mingled with the Blackfoot."
Lagarde and Father Brunet's letter play a starring role in the book.
Mann explains that the letter not only confirms Lagarde's lineage but also says
that he is "a member of the Masons," just like Mann.
"Was there some hidden Native American/Masonic connection to my
family lineage?" Mann wondered in the book. He even suggests that Lagarde
may himself have been a descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
In the foreword, Mann said he aspired to be the next Dan Brown, author
of the wildly popular conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code, which
is based on alternative religious history that supposes Jesus and Mary
Magdalene conceived a child. Mann told CBC he believes that 90 per cent of the
historical claims made in The Da Vinci Code are accurate and
he incorporates some of them in his own writings.
Coburn said he was stunned to learn that it was Mann, the author of
conspiracy theory books, who had discovered the Father Brunet letter and
provided it to the Lagarde committee. That fact alone ought to be a red flag,
Coburn said.
Animal vellum and
an imaginary diocese
The letter that appears in Mann's book is what was provided to the 2013
hearing ㅡ supposedly a photo
of the original document.
Mann told CBC he has seen the original, which was being stored in the
home of someone who, like Mann, was Algonquin and a Templar Knight. Mann said
he couldn't reveal where the document is or who has it, as he's sworn to
secrecy.
He said to his eye, the original appeared to have been written on animal
vellum.
In 2019, Bill Mann
was installed as the Supreme Grand Master of the Sovereign Great Priory of
Canada, the governing body of the Knights Templar for a two year
term. (KnightsTemplarLibrary.com)
Mark McGowan, a University of Toronto historian who specializes in
Canadian Roman Catholic history, says that claim is surprising given that paper
was common in 1845.
"I've examined thousands of documents over my career and I've never
seen something in a Canadian context that would be written in the 1840s on
animal vellum," he said.
In the letter, Father Brunet says the bishop sent him "to
evangelize in the distant regions of the North West from the... diocese of
Saint Sulpice."
- Got
a tip? Contact geoff.leo@cbc.ca
"There's actually never been a diocese of Saint Sulpice in
Canada," McGowan said.
Finally, McGowan said the Father Brunet letter stands apart from the
hundreds of letters he's read between priests and bishops because of its
perfunctory tone. He said typically, a priest would begin a letter to the
bishop with "Your excellency" and end it with "In Christ"
or "I remain your faithful servant."
In the Father Brunet letter, he launches in without a greeting and ends
by merely signing his last name.
"That's really unusual," said McGowan, adding that the letter
"does have a smell to it."
Handwriting all
wrong
CBC wanted to analyze the handwriting to see if it matched that of the
Father Brunet of history. The letter only refers to him by his last name.
CBC found a church
record that said Alexandre Augustin Brunet baptized one of Lagarde's children
in 1845, making it clear that they knew each other. (Omiworld.org)
The most likely "Brunet" appears to be Alexandre Augustin
Brunet, who served as a missionary priest in the Ottawa River Valley beginning
in January 1845, meaning he would have been in the area where "Father
Brunet" purportedly met Lagarde in June of that year.
CBC found a church record that said Alexandre Augustin Brunet baptized
one of Thomas Lagarde's children on Sept. 2, 1845, making it clear that they
knew each other.
CBC provided samples of the handwriting of Alexandre Augustin Brunet and
the Father Brunet letter about Lagarde to Shabnam Preet Kaur, a handwriting
expert with Docufraud Canada.
CBC asked Kaur if the handwriting appeared to have been done by the same
person. After examination, the forensic document examiner wrote "it is my
professional and expert opinion that the writer [of the Father Brunet letter]
and signature was not the same hand identified as the writer of the comparison
samples belonging to French Priest Father Brunet."
A parallel
investigation
CBC also spoke with Mark Humphries, a historian from Wilfrid Laurier
University in Waterloo, Ont., who has also investigated the Father Brunet
letter.
An expert in military history, Humphries put his archival research
skills to work examining his own genealogical roots in 2018. Humphries is
related to Thomas Lagarde and his wife, Sophie Carriere. Through his research,
Humphries had identified them both as French.
During his research, Humphries discovered that some people were making
the surprising and controversial claim that the couple was Algonquin. He found
that in 2013, not only was there a hearing about the claim that Lagarde was
Algonquin, but there was a separate hearing exploring whether or not Carriere
was as well.
As in the Lagarde hearing, it was Bill Mann's sister Cheryl Fitzgibbon
who delivered a crucial letter as evidence that the person was Algonquin ㅡ in Carriere's
case, a baptismal record.
Humphries asked the AOO for both the Father Brunet letter and the
Carriere baptismal record. The AOO emailed copies to him, explaining that they
appeared to have come from the Saint Sulpice Seminary in Montreal.
Using notes in the margin of the Carriere baptismal record, an archivist
at the seminary was able to locate the original document. But it looked nothing
like the Carriere letter.
The archivist sent a copy to Humphries, noting "We are close to
something very strange."
The document from the archives had the same marginal notes and
scratched-out text as found on the Carriere letter. However, the body of the
archival letter had been written more than 100 years earlier than the Carriere
baptismal record, and had nothing to do with her or baptism. (The text from the
early 1700s letter related to survey work on a proposed canal on seminary
property.)
"It would appear to me as if two documents were combined to create
a new one," Humphries concluded.
(CBC)
"I've never seen anything like this in 15 years working in
archives," he said. "As an historian, I would immediately treat that
piece of evidence as being highly suspicious."
It became even more suspicious after CBC conducted a search of
Carriere's genealogical records on Ancestry.ca and discovered her actual
baptismal record in a Catholic baptismal registry.
Veldon Coburn says about 1,000 people also rely on Carriere as a root
ancestor and this revelation should cause officials to more closely
examine whether she is truly Algonquin.
Father Brunet
letter also in doubt
As for the Father Brunet letter that Mann said he received in his
mailbox, the archivist was unable to locate it in the Saint Sulpice
archives.
Humphries said it's odd that the text of the letter is completely
legible, given Mann's claim that it had suffered fire and water damage.
"I've seen a lot of ripped documents. I've never seen a document
where all the text is completely preserved but the paper around it is
completely destroyed," said Humphries.
He had even greater concerns when he placed the Saint Sulpice archival
document tied to Carriere's baptismal record side by side with the Father
Brunet letter. He said the tear along the top of the Father Brunet letter
"has striking similarities in terms of its actual form to the [Saint
Sulpice archival] document, especially along the top of the page."
"That would lead me to be highly suspicious of its origins and
authenticity," he said.
(CBC)
CBC provided the two letters to Kaur, the forensic document analyst at
Docufraud Canada.
She superimposed the two documents onto each other and found that the
tear along the top matched "completely."
Veldon Coburn said after looking at all this evidence, he has concluded
"it's unlikely that this letter is authentic," adding "it's
almost, in my mind, a certainty that this is a forgery."
CBC emailed a detailed summary of the evidence it gathered about
the Father Brunet letter to the Algonquins of Ontario group. The AOO's lawyer,
Robert Potts, told CBC it is difficult to respond "as it consists of
vague statements and allegations presented in a summary way," adding,
"I haven't seen much of the information that you have referred
to."
He pointed out that there will be another opportunity this fall for
protesters to challenge the legitimacy of ancestors like Lagarde.
"If somebody thinks they have a claim of impropriety or a problem
with respect to anybody that fits into this process, we have set it up so
you can bring it on and have those people deal with it," said Potts.
Mann said he's disappointed CBC conducted this investigation and
defended the letter's authenticity, writing, "why would I put the
information out there if it wasn't absolutely true?"
He said he would have nothing to gain by doing that.
"Think about it. Why would an extremely successful and esteemed
person of my rank be willing to subject himself to this BS?"
Mann also strongly discouraged CBC from telling this story, arguing
"all it will do is rip the Algonquin land claim process apart."
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Senior Investigative Journalist
Geoff Leo has been a reporter for CBC News in Saskatchewan since 2001.
His work as an investigative journalist and documentary producer has earned
numerous national and regional awards.
