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“After 22 years as a judge, I thought I knew about human trafficking,” Marion Buller, chief commissioner of the inquiry into Canada’s Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, said this week.

“But I was shocked by the nature and the extent. I had no idea it was such a pervasive problem. I’m still shocked to the point where I’m thinking that some of the cases I had in court … did I miss the signs?”

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In the massive and disturbing report released last week, much has been made of the conclusion that Canada is guilty of genocide.

Genocide is certainly an uncomfortable word. But so are many of the others in the 1,247 pages of the final report (including the 121-page executive summary and a 47-page, supplementary report on genocide). Among those are prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking, which are inextricably linked to the vulnerability of girls and young women because of poverty, low levels of education and disconnection from families and communities.