CBC Radio Canada investigation: Norval Morrisseau's children might have played a role in undermining his legacy.
- John Zemanovich
- Feb 9
- 8 min read
CBC Superior Morning with Mary-Jean Cormier
August 18, 2025
Host: Mary-Jean Cormier
Guest : Dominique Degre (CBC Radio-Canada)
TRANSCRIPT:
CORMIER
The late Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau is a treasured Canadian artist, but because he didn’t keep a catalog of his work, it became a frequent target of fraud. Morrisseau's children and his estate have portrayed themselves victims of the fraud, but they may be linked to it according to court documents found during a Radio Canada investigation, Dominic Degre was one of the journalists who's researched this story.
DEGRE
Good morning. Thanks for having me.
CORMIER
Glad you could join us. So, how were the Morrisseau children alleged to have been involved in the widespread fraud of their father Norval Morrisseau's art?
DEGRE
So, essentially, it was through their name. So, their name was used allegedly to make forgeries and fake paintings appear authentic to the market. Now, the most tangible example we have of this is through a guy named James White. Now James White is an art
dealer who recently pleaded guilty to accusations related to the traffic and possession of forgeries and he's had a relationship with the Morrisseau children for roughly 20 years. It started off in around 2006. And White, over the years, has produced a number of art shows and exhibitions with works by Christian Morrisseau, one of Norval's sons who was a painter himself. And so, you would have these shows produced by James White featuring Christian's work alongside different artworks attributed to Norval Morrisseau.
DEGRE
Now James White also sold prints of forgeries, and a lot of those prints were seized by police when they raided his home and searched it around 2021. And during those searches, the police also seized certificates of authenticity accompanying those prints. And on those certificates was the seal of the Morrisseau Family Foundation. Now, that foundation was created by Norval's children to, supposedly, protect their father's legacy and establish their right over his art. The foundation also had a contract with James White that we were able to see, and it dates to around 2010. So, James White would get the exclusive rights to make prints and certificates of authenticity for a number of works attributed to Morrisseau and the children in exchange would get $3,500 along with 10% of the sales after that.
The issue is that Norval publicly denounced the foundation because he got wind of his
children's intentions before he passed away in December 2007. The kids were already starting to be kind of vocal about their desire to create that foundation. And there's also something interesting about the way the foundation was created because it was put together with the help of one Joseph McLeod.
Now McLeod was a Toronto art dealer that Norval Morrisseau also denounced while he was still alive because he saw in his catalogues a number of paintings that were attributed to him, but that he never actually painted. And Norval would later be proven right in those allegations because David Voss, who's a forger based out of Thunder Bay, pleaded guilty last year and in doing so identified over 1,600 forgeries produced by his ring over the years. And in that list were all of the paintings that Norval Morrisseau had identified as being forgeries from McLeod’s catalog.
Now, speaking of David Voss, there's also another connection with other Norval Morrisseau children there. Because you have David Morrisseau, another one of Norval's sons, who signed the backs of paintings with a message basically saying, ‘Yes, I saw my father paint this in whatever year and his signature.’ But, according to Thunder Bay police detective Jason Ryback who basically led the criminal investigation into the fraud rings, David told investigators that he never actually saw his father paint any of them and that he was also paid around $50 per signature of the backs of those paintings.
There's also a connection there with Eugene Morrisseau because he went to Asia around 2015 to promote forgeries that were purchased by a Chinese collector and so, to promote that touring exhibition around that period of time according to detective Ryback.
CORMIER
So clearly then it's showing that there was involvement by the children and Norval did denounce this Morrisseau Family Foundation that the children were creating. But what was the children's relationship like with Norval?
DEGRE
The details of that relationship are hard to really define, but there's an element that really allows us to say that they were not close at all; and that is Norval Morrisseau's Will. Because in 1999, Norval signed a Will out of which the kids, his biological children, were completely left out of. So, he actually left everything including the copyright to his artwork to Gabor Vadas and that's his adopted son and that raises questions about the legitimacy of deals made by the children, like the one with James White, because some sources told us that well if they didn't really have the copyright and the will at the time, how could they make those deals?
But eventually the children did contest the Will of their father in court in 2010 and reached a settlement with Gabor Vadas two years later in which Vadas would get 50% of the inheritance and the biological children would split, in seven equal shares, the other half of that inheritance including copyrights, of course.
CORMIER
So through this process, many investigations, arrests, and so forth, why were the Morrisseau children never charged?
DEGRE
In interviewing Detective Ryback, he explained to us that police took the angle that the kids were actually being taken advantage of by art dealers and forgers. Now, if you look at, let's say, David Morrisseau, for instance, if he was indeed paid something like $50 to sign the back of a single painting, we also see from seized paintings and court documents in the in David Voss's criminal trial. You can see a price tag with some of those paintings, and they were sold for tens of thousands of dollars, right? There's also the fact that according to, you know, Detective Ryback again, the children lived in northern communities like Keewaywin First Nation, and so had kind of a rougher upbringing. There's also more a more practical aspect to all of this where in large fraud investigations, it's better to charge the people you have the more solid evidence against because otherwise, big court cases mean delays and delays can eventually mean that the trial stops.
CORMIER
Okay. Now, you mentioned that the children formed a foundation that was linked to fraud. Is the foundation still active?
DEGRE
Technically, yes. It's still registered in Ontario. it's still that registration is still active but that you don't really often hear from them and in our case, we tried to get in touch with some of them and they either refused our interview requests or never responded. Now today there's this other organization called the Norval Morrisseau Estate Limited (NMEL) that has sort of taken over the role once occupied by the foundation in the public space. So, meaning representation of Morrisseau art legacy and all that stuff. And the estate is comprised of Norval's four living biological children, Gabe Vadas, of course, and it also has an executive director named Cory Dingle.
CORMIER
Okay, so I understand Cory Dingle often speaks on behalf of the estate. He's been interviewed many times, including by CBC. How is Dingle involved?
DEGRE
No one really knows for sure if he's involved at all in allegations and of the of the fraud and stuff like that. Dingle recounts that he met Norval Morrisseau in British Columbia around 1988 and we know that he did know Norval Morrisseau at some point, although the exact nature of Dingle's role in Norval's entourage is still somewhat not well documented.
Now, Dingle is also at the heart of a civil lawsuit in Alberta filed by an art gallery for $1.45 million. The gallery alleges that they had a deal with Dingle where he would help them sell Morrisseaus by vouching for their authenticity. But instead, the gallery alleges that Dingle actually did the exact opposite by calling into question the authenticity of their Morrisseau paintings to potential clients and then redirecting them to his own private collection to make a sale. The estate obviously firmly denies all of this, and allegations have yet to be proven in court, of course…
CORMIER
Okay, so the Morrisseau saga continues then.
DEGRE
It sure does. Uh this civil suit is going ahead. Both parties have filed their documents and their defense and stuff like that. So, we're going to have to see what's the issue of that.
As far as criminal cases go, those are starting to wrap up. You have James White that has yet to receive his sentence. He had other co-accused, two other co-accused with him who are also waiting. One of them pleaded guilty just about two weeks ago. He's also waiting for his sentence. And then another of the accused in that specific case, in that southern Ontario forgery ring, has pleaded not guilty. So he's waiting for his trial. But all this kind of goes to show that the fraud is now integral part of Morrisseau's legacy, unfortunately, but also that even though things are starting to wrap up and the dust settles, there's still a lot to uncover.
CORMIER
Thank you so much for this. I have a feeling we'll talk again.
DEGRE
Yes. Thank you very much.
CORMIER
Bye-bye.
DEGREE
Bye.
CORMIER
Dominique Degre is a journalist at Radio Canada, CBC's French counterpart. We reached him in Montreal. You can read the full investigation into how Morrisseau's children could be linked to fraud on our website cbc.ca/thunderbay
