‘What more do you need?’ says Sen. Audette as researchers find ‘strong intersection’ between MMIWG and online human trafficking

A new report mapping the links between the disappearances of Indigenous women and girls and human trafficking is reinforcing concerns Indigenous leaders and advocates have raised for decades, while a successful Minnesota case suggests the data could also provide law enforcement with a new tool to help locate missing people. 

The second edition of the report, conducted by Thomson Reuters and released on July 24, entitled Unseen, Unknown and Unsolved: Disappearances and Trafficking of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the United States, examines the connection between Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and human trafficking in both countries, drawing on more than a decade of reported disappearances, and thousands of online sex advertisements.

The previous report, published in June 2025, used geospatial analysis to examine unresolved cases of MMIWG since 2010, alongside online sex ads featuring Indigenous women and girls. It collected 185 cases from 2010 to April 2024, wherein the individual—with an average age of 30 years—was still missing, with 25 per cent of cases occurring in Alberta, and 21 per cent in Manitoba.

Covering 2016 through 2025, the research compiled 3,485 Canadian sex advertisements purporting to feature Indigenous women, identifying geographic “hotspots” including Vancouver, Edmonton, and the Ontario corridor connecting Windsor, Toronto, and Ottawa via Highway 401.

Despite Winnipeg, Man., having a high rate of MMIWG occurrences over the period, the report found a “relatively sparse” number of ads posted in the city. Manitoba and Saskatchewan were instead identified as “feeder” provinces for Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.

The report attributes Winnipeg’s higher case concentration to its larger urban Indigenous population, and robust local activist reporting networks. Edmonton, meanwhile, emerged as “a gravitational centre for the Prairie provinces,” due in part to “the flourishing oil drilling rigs and mining businesses” in Alberta.

Ottawa also saw a high volume of ads relative to larger cities, which the report says may be explained by “its status as the capital,” bringing more domestic and international visitors and, consequently, a higher level of demand relative to its population.

Building on that data, the 2026 report adds an analysis of sex-trafficking corridors, updated geospatial data on MMIWG and sex ads featuring Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and, for the first time, data from the U.S.

From May 2025 through March 2026, the report identified 38 new disappearance events, including nine in Manitoba and eight each in Ontario and Alberta. Eleven victims were under the age of 18, while the average age was 28.

Of the 313 sex ads claiming to feature an Indigenous person collected during the same period, 56 per cent were concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area, with Montreal and Vancouver having the next-highest ad volumes.

The report also maps movements across “trafficking corridors” by sequencing geographic data from online sex ads over the past decade. Toronto to Vancouver was identified as the most-used city-to-city corridor, followed by Edmonton to Fort McMurray, Alta.; Calgary to Edmonton; and Belleville, Ont., to Edmonton.

Alongside the increase in disappearances and sex ads in the GTA, and the contrasting decline in sex-ad activity in Ottawa, the report highlights Prince George, B.C., as a notable outlier. The city recorded two disappearances over the 10-month period, with at least one other Indigenous person going missing and later being located.

The report notes that, alongside a higher proportion of Indigenous people, Prince George also has an economy predicated on natural resource development, particularly forestry and mining, citing a survey of academic studies linking natural resource extraction areas in Canada and sexual violence or abuse against Indigenous women and girls.

Heather Panton, senior adviser for social impact and human rights at Thomson Reuters, told The Hill Times that while both reports examine the connections between natural resource extraction projects and the “man camps” that emerge around them to house workers, she cautioned against drawing a direct causal link.

Prince George is notable, Panton said, because of its location along major transport corridors such as Highway 16, the so-called “Highway of Tears,” and its proximity to resource-development projects, including the $4-billion Enbridge Sunrise Expansion Program, which began construction in late July.

Neither report provides “direct causation by any specific project or work camp,” Panton said. Rather, “trafficking and exploitation often follow patterns of mobility, economic activity, and demand,” which can also characterize the transient workforces associated with resource projects and potentially increase vulnerability to exploitation.

“We know from years of research and testimony from Indigenous communities that large infrastructure and resource projects can create concerns about community safety and heightened vulnerability, particularly when significant temporary workforces are involved,” Panton said, noting that the methodology also makes data collection more difficult in work camps, which tend to be more insular and may rely more on word of mouth than online classifieds for illicit activity.

What the findings do suggest, Panton said, is a reinforcement of the suspected interconnection between MMIWG cases and sex trafficking, “amplifying concerns that Indigenous communities, families, survivors, and advocates have been raising for decades.”

Panton said that alongside the continued “strong intersection between MMIWG and human trafficking,” the research also confirms that the issue crosses both provincial and international borders.

Report is a familiar ‘punch in the stomach’ after decades of Indigenous-led ‘homework’: Sen. Audette

Progressive Senator Michèle Audette (De Salaberry, Que.), one of five commissioners at the helm of the MMIWG inquiry and current chair of the Senate Indigenous Peoples Committee, called the reports’ findings a familiar “punch in the stomach.”

“It just shows again what we said in 2006, 20013, 2014, and 2019, and so on,” Audette told The Hill Times, adding that she will be writing to Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) as well as Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty (Northwest Territories)—the minister responsible for the MMIWG Calls to Action—and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandadangaree (Scarborough–Guildwood–Rouge Park, Ont.) for a response to the latest report’s findings.

“We already did the homework and collected the evidence that there are too many women and young girls missing or disappearing and becoming victims of human trafficking, and now we have this report,” Audette said of her intended message. “What more do you need?”

Audette said she sent a similar letter to Carney last summer following the “tone” his government set with the rapid passage of Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, which aims to fast-track infrastructure and energy projects deemed to be in the “national interest.”

Audette said that her first reaction to C-5 was to question the government’s plans to continue implementing the MMIWG Calls for Justice and address the issue of “man camps.”

“I was concerned, and I'm still concerned, so when I saw the report yesterday, I said I needed to remind the prime minister,” Audette said. “Whether or not these communities will be welcoming of these national projects, what protections will there be for their safety?”

NDP MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, Man.), her party’s Indigenous affairs critic, called the report “deeply disturbing,” but added that “much of this is a reminder of what Indigenous communities have already been telling us for years: that we need urgent supports to end the ongoing genocide of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.”

More than seven years after the Calls for Justice, it is “unconscionable that the government is cutting essential programs that are meant to address an ongoing genocide,” Gazan said, citing a report by the National Family and Survivors Circle warning that federal progress is at risk of being undone by a projected 51-per-cent reduction in related programs and initiatives by 2028-29, from a peak of $3.7-billion in 2024-25 to approximately $1.8-billion.

In that context, Gazan said, “the Liberal government’s fast-tracking of resource development projects is especially alarming given that they refuse to address the effects of these projects for the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2S+,” further pointing to the findings of a 2022 House Status of Women Committee study into violence against Indigenous women and girls and resource development projects.

“More than ever, we need urgent action to uphold the human rights and dignity of Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people,” Gazan said. “Is it not in the national interest to ensure the safety of Indigenous women and girls is upheld?”

In a lengthy joint statement from the departments of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Natural Resources Canada, and Public Safety Canada, the federal government said it is committed to preventing violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people as it advances major resource and infrastructure projects, while supporting Indigenous-led approaches to community safety.

"The Government of Canada also recognizes that major resource development and infrastructure projects can have diverse impacts on Indigenous communities,” the statement reads, adding that recent engagement with Indigenous communities, governments, and industry in B.C., Manitoba, and Nunavut has identified “promising practices to improve community safety while supporting responsible resource development.”

Furthermore, the statement says that Natural Resources is co-ordinating federal efforts to advance the MMIWG Inquiry’s Calls for Justice on Resource Development, and Public Safety is leading a national public education campaign on human trafficking, including a recently launched campaign “informed by Indigenous perspectives that uses trauma-informed, survivor-centred messaging to promote awareness and help prevent exploitation in Indigenous communities.”

The government acknowledged that “more must be done” and said that Natural Resources, the Major Projects Office, and other federal partners will conduct further regional, distinction-based engagement with Indigenous communities affected by major projects to identify priorities and gaps in existing supports, thereby strengthening local capacity and safety.

“The Government of Canada condemns violence against Indigenous women, girls and other vulnerable people and recognizes that this violence has had devastating and lasting impacts on individuals, families, and communities across Canada,” the statement reads, further adding its commitment to “working alongside Indigenous partners on lasting, Indigenous-led solutions that are supported through collaboration among Indigenous governments, industry, provinces and territories.”

Panton said one positive finding to take away from the Thomson Reuters report is “a growing recognition across jurisdictions that these issues are interconnected and require new approaches,” and pointed to what she called one of the “most important developments” since last year’s report: a successful “case study” demonstrating the data’s ability to help locate a missing Indigenous woman in Minnesota, where more than 400 Indigenous women were considered missing at some point in 2024.

Following publication of the 2025 report, Minnesota’s Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) began incorporating sex-ad searches into its investigations. In early 2026, MMIR investigators successfully used the approach in collaboration with state law enforcement to locate a missing woman who had been trafficked by multiple individuals and connect her with crisis care.

While Minnesota is the only case she knows of where the methodology has been directly connected to a successful resolution, Panton said law enforcement agencies, including the RCMP and other local police services, are using the same analytical tool, Spotlight, to help identify human-trafficking victims and traffickers through online escort ads.

However, behind the analysis and data “is a missing or murdered Indigenous woman or a girl, and a family still searching for answers,” Panton said. “At its core, this report is about prevention, protection, and justice.”

sbenson@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times