Manitoba may be ‘feeder’ province for sex trafficking of MMIWG: report

A report shows Manitoba has one of the highest rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and may be a ‘feeder province’ for sex trafficking. CTV’s Taylor

A new report examining a potential link between human trafficking and missing and murdered Indigenous women shows Manitoba as one of the hardest-hit provinces and may be a “feeder province” for sex trafficking in other provinces.

“The two issues are overlapping and, in many ways, inseparable,” said the report released by Thomson Reuters, a global content and technology company. “To be trafficked is to disappear, and many victims of trafficking are eventually victims of other forms of abuse and eventually homicide.”

The report, which was released Tuesday, analyzed 185 cases from 2010 to April 2024 and found Winnipeg was the city with the most disappearances, with 14 per cent. It was followed by the Edmonton metropolitan area with 10.5 per cent and the triangle between Prince Albert, Regina and Saskatoon with 10 per cent. The report noted that Winnipeg’s large Indigenous population and robust reporting of missing women and girls may have an impact on the numbers.

When it came to provinces, Manitoba was in second place among MMIW cases with 21 per cent, behind Alberta, which has 25 per cent of the cases.

The report also looked at data involving sex ads listing Indigenous women and studied the potential connection between the two.

“While it is true that some events of MMIW may be unconnected to sex trafficking, or that an Indigenous woman featured in a sex ad was never officially considered missing, research and anecdotal evidence suggest a strong link between the two than many have considered,” the report reads.

The data showed that while Winnipeg had a high concentration of missing and murdered Indigenous women cases, the number of sex ads was relatively sparse compared to other cities, such as Edmonton. The report suggests the flourishing of oil drilling rigs and mining operations in Alberta is leading to increased trafficking to that province.

“This points to the possibility that Manitoba and Saskatchewan may act as more ‘feeder’ provinces for victims to be supplied to Alberta, with Edmonton being the closest major city to the oil fields in Northern Alberta,” the report states.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said the information in the report is something families and survivors have been saying for decades.

“Our women and girls are being targeted, trafficked and discarded—and Canada still has no comprehensive resourced plan to stop it,” AMC Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said in a statement. “As Nations, we have to find solutions to keeping our families safe. Canada needs to work with First Nations leadership to understand the critical resources needed in the community.”

The report is calling for a national database for Indigenous disappearances to address the issue and to include databases for sex ads as a possible investigative space for missing women, saying it could lead to more women being found safe.