Saskatoon part of 'human trafficking city triangles,' MMIWG report finds

Report pleases Indigenous families From CTV Saskatoon’s Laura Woodward: Dorthea Swiftwolfe closely watched the conclusion of the MMIWG inquiry.

Saskatoon is a transportation point for human trafficking between Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Regina, according to a new government report.

“Victims are shipped between cities in different provinces … These are known as ‘city triangles’ and include cities in relatively close proximity,” the report reads.

“Many factors contribute to the patterns in trafficking, including oil and gas developments where a largely male, transient workforce travels for short periods of time for work.”

The report concludes a national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), which heard public testimonies across Canada over two years.

RCMP say more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered between 1980 and 2012 – which the report deemed national genocide.

In the report, Tina Chalk, an inspector for the Ontario Provincial Police, noted difficulties in policing human trafficking across provinces .

Chalk gave the example of someone getting lured from a place that is policed provincially, and then trafficked to a place where there’s a municipal police service.

“You might have four or five police services that now have to ensure that they coordinate and collaborate … All of these cases need to be led by someone, they need to be organized, all the witness information and evidence has to be put together,” Chalk said in the report.

The report contains more than 200 recommendations, including that cross-jurisdictional police work more closely together to better investigate missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.