Canadian mother and twins charged with pretending to be Inuit

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66890945

1 day ago

Canadian mother and twins charged with pretending to be Inuit

By Bernd Debusmann Jr

BBC News, Washington

 

Twin sisters Nadya Gill (l) and Amira Gill were charged with fraud along with their mother

 

Three women in Canada have been criminally charged after allegedly pretending to be Inuit to receive benefits from indigenous organisations.

According to police, two 25-year-old sisters committed fraud by posing as adopted Inuit children.

Both sisters and their 59-year-old mother are facing two counts of fraud each. One Inuit group called the alleged deception "flabbergasting".

The defendants are due in court in the city of Iqaluit on 30 October.

In a statement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that the sisters - Amira and Nadya Gill - and their mother, Karima Manji, defrauded two local organisations of "funds that are only available to Inuit beneficiaries by obtaining grants and scholarships" between October 2016 and September 2022.

As part of a 1993 indigenous land claim settlement known as the Nunavut Agreement, members of Canada's Inuit community in the sparsely populated northern territory are able to receive benefits such as grants and scholarships.

Registration of indigenous status is overseen by an organisation called Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, or NTI, which represents Inuits in the territory.

In a March statement, NTI said that it had become "aware of possible fraudulent enrolment" of the Gill sisters after Ms Manji claimed that they were adoptive children and identified an Inuk woman as their birth mother.