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Photo by Justin Tang/ The Canadian Press

But multiple passages of the column seem to have been lifted almost verbatim from other writers’ work.

One paragraph of the piece is almost identical to an abstract by Indigenous writer and student Erica Violet Lee, written for a keynote talk she delivered at a student conference at Carleton University in March. The abstract was published online.

“What does it mean to be safe and free in the context of a colonial state?” it reads in part. “The frontlines of Indigenous struggle are everywhere, now: from the prairies and rivers to city streets, and in classrooms. In a world where our movement is criminalized and our presence is resistance, Indigenous curiosity is radical vulnerability, memory, and futurism.”

A portion of Saganash’s column is very similar:

“What does it mean to be safe and free in the context of a colonial state when it is celebrating its sesquicentennial? The front lines of Indigenous struggle are everywhere, now: from the prairies, boreal forests and rivers to city streets, in classrooms and in the buildings of Parliament. In a world where our very existence is criminalized and our presence is defiance, Indigenous people are forced every day to live in a world built by their colonizers.”

CBC News has since discovered a second passage from the op-ed that seems to plagiarize work by Eric Ritskes, a PhD student at the University of Toronto.

“Settler colonialism demands Indigenous erasure for the purpose of claiming Indigenous land, it is the symbolic and real replacement of Indigenous peoples with settlers who attempt to claim belonging,” Ritskes wrote in a piece published online in 2013.