Winnipeg ‘feeder’ city for sex trafficking

A new report indicates Winnipeg has among the highest concentration of missing and murdered Indigenous women cases in Canada — suggesting Manitoba’s capital is a “feeder” city for sex trafficking operations in Edmonton and elsewhere.

Thomson Reuters released the report on Monday, using geospatial analysis to examine a possible connection between MMIW cases and posts on sex websites that advertise services from Indigenous women.

It is believed to be the first time the two data sets have been compared to look for potential trends and patterns.

“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 stronger link between the two than many have considered,” the 18-page report says.

“The two issues are overlapping and in many ways inseparable. To be trafficked is to disappear, and many victims of trafficking are eventually victims of other forms of abuse and eventually homicide.”

The report analyzed 185 cases in which an Indigenous woman was slain or remains missing in Canada from 2010 to April 2024.

It found Winnipeg accounted for the highest number of disappearances during that time, at 14 per cent. Manitoba overall represented about 21 per cent of all MMIW cases, second only to Alberta, at 25 per cent, the report says.

The report cautioned Winnipeg’s high Indigenous population (the largest of all major cities in Canada, as per the 2021 Census), and its robust reporting system for missing Indigenous women could affect the numbers.

Grassroots groups such as Morgan’s Warriors and the Bear Clan are particularly active in reporting disappearances soon after they occur, while “other provinces do not appear to have similar reporting resources,” it said.

Of the remaining MMIW cases included in the report, 17 per cent occurred in Ontario; 15 per cent took place in B.C.; 13 per cent occurred in Saskatchewan; and nine per cent occurred in the other provinces.

Researchers then analyzed 3,485 sex advertisements claiming to feature Indigenous women dating back to 2016. They found hot spots for such advertisements in several of Canada’s major cities, including Vancouver, Ottawa, the Greater Toronto Area and Edmonton.

While the former cities have high populations and draw large amounts of visitors, Edmonton stands out because it is geographically remote in comparison — indicating it “may act as a gravitational centre for the Prairie provinces when it comes to trafficking.”

“This points to the possibility that Manitoba and Saskatchewan may act as more ‘feeder’ provinces for victims to be supplied to Alberta,” the report says.

Alberta’s capital city is believed to be a hot spot for sex trafficking due to the prevalence of oil drilling rigs and mining businesses in northern parts of the province, it says.

The report found Winnipeg had a low number of sex advertisements for Indigenous women.

“This disparity could be for a variety of reasons: the higher Indigenous population may have an inverse effect on the demand for Indigenous sex trafficking, or victims that are trafficked from Winnipeg may be moved to other places like Edmonton,” it said.

The report acknowledged limitations to the analysis, noting some disappearances are not recorded and some sex advertisements are not explicit about their subject’s ethnicity.

Sex advertisements were considered to be an indicator of human trafficking for the purposes of the report because they are often used to recruit victims and advertise their exploitation.

The report included a number of recommendations, including introducing a national data repository for MMIW, and a national search effort that canvasses the sex advertisement ecosystem.

Collecting MMIW data should involve multiple sources, including First Nations authorities and activist groups. Investigative resources should be prioritized in known hot spots, it said.

“The hot spots of Winnipeg in the area of MMIW and Edmonton in the area of sex ads must be examined more thoroughly. These cities could tell us much about these issues,” the report said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Trafficking report