Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) is investigating potential enrolment fraud involving two Queen’s alumni sisters, Nadya Gill, JD and LLM ’22, and Amira Gill, BASc ’19 and MASc ’21, who claimed Inuk heritage.
Social media posts alleging false claims of Inuit identity, and misuse of financial for university studies and their business have circulated in the past week.
“Our ‘Inuit family ties’ are through an Iqaluit family that our mother lived with,” the Gill sisters said in an emailed statement to Nunatsiaq News.
In a recent news release by NTI, Karima Manji claimed her adopted twin daughters, Amira and Nadya, were adopted from an Inuk mother.
NTI is responsible for ensuring promises made to Inuit people under the Nunavut Agreement are carried out. NTI received information from the birth mother of the Gill sisters stating that they are not her children.
On March 30, the alleged birth mother initiated the process to have the Gill sisters removed from the Inuit enrolment list.
According to a Kingstonist report, Iqaluit resident Noah Noah claimed the unidentified Inuk mother listed in NTI’s news release—the one previously named as the biological mother of the two sisters—is actually his mother, Kitty Noah.
According to Noah, his family was unaware the Gill twins even existed or that the Noah family had been designated as the sisters’ Inuit beneficiaries.
“The Iqaluit Community Enrolment Committee will review the removal application and make a decision,” the news release said.
The Gill sisters have been associated with Kanata Trade Co., a business that sold Indigenous art face masks to Indspire, a national charity for Indigenous youth.
“We started Kanata Trade Co. to help Indspire charity’s mission,” the sisters wrote to Nunatsiaq News. “[We] have been an integral part of the community in Kingston. We have participated in advocacy, cultural ceremonies, and education.”
According to the Nunatsiaq News article, Indspire spokesperson Brandon Meawasige confirmed the Gill sisters were eligible for funding under its bursaries and scholarships program because they provided proof of hip in NTI.
The sisters were eligible for funding from Indspire based on their NTI enrolment cards. The Gill sisters claimed that their Inuit family ties are through an Iqaluit family but have a strained relationship with their parents and now consider Kingston their home.
“To prevent any potential fraud in the future, NTI is working with the Community Enrolment Committees to take additional measures to further strengthen the enrolment application and review process,” the NTI release added.
The Nunatsiaq News article stated the Gill sisters said they felt the controversy “was an invasion of [their] privacy” although they did it to understanding “the public interest in this matter.”
The Gill sisters did not respond to The Journal’s requests for comment on the matter.
“In recent years, Queen’s has devoted significant attention and focus on developing policies and providing for Indigenous students, faculty and staff,” the University wrote in a statement to The Journal in response to allegations.
“This is part of our ongoing commitment to provide an inclusive, ive, and equitable learning environment.”
Most recently, Queen’s announced an Interim Indigenous Hiring Policy in an effort to address the question of Indigeneity among staff, students, and faculty.
According to the statement, Queen’s provides students the Indigenous Students ission Pathway (IAP) which outlines specific issions criteria for Indigenous candidates and ission to the first year of a full-time, first-entry undergraduate degree program.
In November 2021, the Indigenous Caucus of the Indigenous Council approved the Indigenous Student Verification Policy, which was received by the Senate in November of 2022 and is currently in practice.
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