Mother of sisters who claimed to be Inuit pleads guilty to fraud

Karima Manji pleaded guilty in the Nunavut Court of Justice on Friday in Iqaluit and took “full responsibility for the matters at hand,” her lawyer said in an email.

Manji had enrolled her two daughters with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. — the organization responsible for enrolling people in the Nunavut Agreement — saying they were adopted out of an Inuit family even though she had given birth to the twins, according to an agreed statement of facts filed with the court.

The Ontario family began making headlines on March 30, 2023, after Nunatsiaq News reported Nunavut Tunngavik was investigating allegations of potential enrolment fraud.

Indigenous people have been raising alarm bells over the pair’s claims of Inuit ancestry for years.

The agreed statement of facts emailed to Global News by Manji’s lawyer state that Manji “provided false information on the Enrolment Forms about Nadya and Amira’s birth and eligibility for enrolment” and that after the daughters’ enrollment was approved and cards were issued, “the daughters were unaware the cards were fraudulent.”

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The agreed statement of facts also show that the daughters weren’t adopted out of the Noah family, a fact they had originally claimed.

“On September 26, 1998, Karima Manji gave birth in Mississauga, Ontario to twin daughters: Nadya and Amira Gill,” the statement reads.

Manji faced three counts of fraud over $5,000 and her daughters, Amira and Nadya Gill, were each charged with two counts.

Manji pleaded guilty to one court of fraud over $5,000.

According to Nunatsiaq News, the remaining two charges against Manji and the charges against the Gill sisters were withdrawn.

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In September 2023, the RCMP said that “the women used this Inuit beneficiary status to defraud the Kakivak Association and Qikiqtani Inuit Association of funds that are only available to Inuit beneficiaries by obtaining grants and scholarships.”

“A further $64,413 was on hold for Amira Gill in the spring of 2023, but was not paid out,” the statement continues.

The case is set to return to court on June 24. Manji’s lawyer said defence counsel will then “make further submissions on her background and to contextualize the circumstances of the transaction.”