Twins and their mother accused of feigning Inuit identity

Three women in Canada are facing criminal charges for falsely claiming to be Inuit in order to receive benefits from indigenous organizations.

The police say that two sisters who are 25 years old pretended to be adopted Inuit children and did something wrong called fraud.

Both sisters and their 59-year-old mother have been charged with two counts of fraud. One group of Inuit people found the alleged deception to be very surprising.

The people being accused have to go to court in Iqaluit on 30 October.

The RCMP said that Amira and Nadya Gill and their mother, Karima Manji, tricked two local groups out of money that is only meant for Inuit people by getting grants and scholarships. This happened between October 2016 and September 2022.

As part of an agreement in 1993, the Inuit community in Canada‘s remote northern territory called Nunavut can get benefits like money and help with school.

The process of proving and confirming indigenous status is managed by an organization called Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, also known as NTI. This organization represents Inuits who live in the region.

In a statement in March, NTI said that they found out about possible cheating in the enrollment of the Gill sisters. This happened after Ms. Manji said that they were adopted and mentioned an Inuk woman as their birth mother.

They said that this case was the first time something like this has happened in the organization’s enrollment program.

After looking into the situation, the three people from Ontario were taken off the NTI’s list of people who receive benefits. The issue was then given to the RCMP.

Kitty Noah, the woman identified by the Gills as their biological mother, said before she passed away in July that she was not connected to the twins.

In 2021, the Gill sisters started a business on the internet where they sell face masks. The face masks have designs made by artists from indigenous communities. Both sisters have finished studying at Queen’s University in Ontario.

During an interview with Canadian broadcaster CBC, NTI President Aluki Kotierk stated that it is important for the Gill sisters and their mother to give back the money they received from Inuit associations.

He said that in the future, the NTI will provide additional training for the people on the enrollment committees.

Mr Kotierk described the supposed fraud as “another way of taking over” and part of a larger pattern where non-indigenous Canadians pretend to be indigenous.

“He said that you aimed to deprive us of our language. ” You tried to remove our culture from us. Are you trying to say that you are us. That is really surprising.

In a statement, the NTI said that the case was an “isolated” incident. However, they are planning to make enrollment criteria stricter and will now ask applicants to submit a copy of their detailed birth certificate.

The twins received money from two local groups, the Kakivak Association and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. They also got scholarships from Indspire, a Canadian charity for indigenous people, as well as from electricity company Hydro One and Royal Bank of Canada.

A representative from the Royal Bank of Canada said that in the past, people applying for scholarships could say if they were indigenous, but now the rules have changed.

The BBC has reached out to Indspire and Hydro One to ask for their comments.

Some Canadians call people who falsely claim to be indigenous “pretendians”.

But according to Jean Teillet, who is a part of the Métis indigenous community, they say that the term makes the issue seem less serious because it sounds like it is not harmful.

I like to use the word fraud because it means intentionally tricking someone to get something valuable, and that’s exactly what we’re talking about here.

The three women who were charged could not be contacted right away for their comments.