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Her findings include instances of Inuit families and individuals in the north allegedly “attempting to buy and sell Inuit babies, children, and teenaged youth.” She cites an Inuk man’s attempt to sell a young child through Facebook, which the RCMP intercepted, and another man who attempted to purchase a newborn baby from an Inuit mother outside an Iqaluit hospital, which she reported to hospital officials.

The 146-page report is largely anecdotal, based on interviews and conversations with members of Inuit communities in Nunavut and Ottawa, government officials, and health and social services employees.

The report also highlights “distinct travel patterns” of teenage girls travelling to cities in the south from Nunavut.

The Qimaavik women’s shelter in Iqaluit reported hearing from several Inuit families that they received between $15,000 and $20,000 from individuals for each of their underage daughters, who were then flown to Canadian cities, with the majority of them ending up in Winnipeg.

“They were not told exactly where the girls were going. They don’t say ‘human trafficking’ … they say ‘for prostitution’

Suny Jacob, Qimaavik’s executive director, confirmed in an interview with the National Post she has been told by families they were paid “by an agent, a pimp, to use their girls, who are probably aged anywhere between 11-14 … there was one case where the girl was 9 years old.”

“They were not told exactly where the girls were going,” she says. “They don’t say ‘human trafficking’ … they say ‘for prostitution.'”

Inuit organizations in Winnipeg said they were unaware of any such cases. However, Larissa Maxwell, manager at Deborah’s Gate, a human trafficking safe house in Vancouver, says her group has been seeing a trend in Inuit and Aboriginal youth being offered flights and other forms of travel to B.C. cities and trafficked for sex upon arrival.