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| Dear reader, Amira and Nadya Gill were raised in Etobicoke, the twin daughters of a Tanzanian mother and a British father. Mom and Dad had a rocky relationship, and home life wasn’t exactly bliss, but the twins showed promise in athletics and academics. As high school came to an end, they stood on the cusp of a bright future.
Yet, in 2016, their mother, Karima Manji, decided aptitude wasn’t going to be enough. She knew about the many bursaries and grants available to First Nations, Inuit and Métis students in Canada. One glaring obstacle—the family’s lack of Indigeneity—should have been the end of it, but Manji wasn’t your average, law-abiding citizen. A year earlier, she’d been caught stealing $800,000 from March of Dimes, a charity for people with disabilities. She was charged and convicted but remained unrepentant.
Manji had spent some time in Iqaluit in the early ’90s and while there briefly dated a man who’d fathered seven kids with a woman named Kitty Noah. On a government application form, Manji lied and claimed that she had adopted her twin daughters from Noah. With a single stamp of approval, the twins became Indigenous on paper, and joined the long, sordid list of so-called pretendians—a pejorative for people falsely claiming Indigeneity.
The benefits rolled in. Amira received one of 10 scholarships from RBC reserved for Indigenous students, worth $4,000 per year. She was awarded one of 15 scholarships from Hydro One dedicated to Indigenous students, worth $5,000. Both twins received bursaries from Indspire, a national charity that subsidizes education for Indigenous students, as well as nearly $160,000 in additional funding from two Inuit associations.
They embraced their new identities with gusto. On campus at Queen’s, Amira hung out on the dorm floor reserved for Indigenous students and was centre stage during Indigenous Awareness Week. Then, in 2021, an informal network of amateur sleuths discovered the truth about the Gill sisters, and word spread quickly. Soon, the RCMP had zeroed in on the family.
As Sarah Treleaven explains in her shocking exposé, “The Great Pretenders,” this wasn’t some multimillion-dollar scheme. But in many respects it was far more contemptible, and not only because each scholarship the twins received prevented a legitimate applicant from getting a shot. Grants and bursaries like those the Gills usurped are a small part of Canada’s continuous efforts to atone for its colonialism. What makes Manji, her daughters and pretendians like them so abhorrent is that they co-opt these very acts of atonement to victimize Indigenous communities all over again.
—Malcolm Johnston, editor-in-chief |
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| In today’s edition of This City: how two faux-Inuit sisters cashed in on a life of deception, a ’70s-themed wedding captured on film, and more. Visit torontolife.com for all our city coverage. |
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| | Roya Shaji serendipitously met Mani Rassolian on an escalator at a conference in Toronto. After a speedy courtship, a private engagement in High Park and the birth of their son, the couple wed in May 2023 at a colourful 1970s-inspired party that also celebrated their Persian heritage. Here’s how it all came together. |
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What to read, watch and listen to this month |
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| | In her first solo exhibition at a Toronto gallery, Pizandawatc / The One Who Listens / Celui qui écoute, Montreal-based Anishinaabe artist Caroline Monnet tackles themes of language, loss and reclamation by capturing the sound waves of words spoken in her ancestral language in layers of wood, imprinting the voices of her people onto physical objects. Until March 23, Art Museum at the University of Toronto |
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| | In the latest issue: how two faux-Inuit sisters cashed in on a life of deception. Plus, the city’s best cheap eats, a suburban holy war between religion and real estate, a bittersweet memoir about ditching Toronto, and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today. |
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