‘Hard to regain my trust,' says Tatyanna Harrison's mother after inquest called
The mother of a young Indigenous woman found dead in B.C. three years ago says she's grappling with mixed emotions now that a coroner's inquest has been called in the case.
Tatyanna Harrison was found dead on a drydocked yacht in Richmond in May 2022. Her remains were actually found a day before she was reported missing, but it was four months before she was properly identified, and her family has since raised numerous concerns about how the case was handled.
After her mother, Natasha Harrison, and the families of another Indigenous woman and teen found dead in 2022 raised public questions about all three cases on Monday, the province's chief coroner ordered the inquest into Tatyanna's case. No inquests, however, have been called into the other two cases.
2:18
Vigil held for Tatyanna Harrison, Chelsea Poorman and Noelle O'Soup
'It's such a weird emotion … I've been through them all, you know, but there's been a few that I had never felt in my life with my daughter, and this was another one — I had never been so excited for such tragic news,' Natasha said.
Story continues below advertisement
'I can't help but have my heart go out to Chelsea Poorman's family and Noelle O'Soup's family, like it doesn't feel complete until an inquest is called for them, you know.'
Poorman was found in a vacant Shaughnessy mansion, while O'Soup was found in a Downtown Eastside apartment, after being overlooked by investigators who had visited the unit several times. Both families have raised serious concerns about how they died and how their investigations were handled.
Unanswered questions
Natasha and her supporters have raised many concerns about the case.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
Initially, officials said Tatyanna had died of a toxic dose of fentanyl, but months later, the coroner ruled she died of sepsis.
Shortly after her daughter was identified in August, Natasha spoke with the coroner — the first of a series of conversations she said left her with more questions than answers.
Story continues below advertisement
'I asked in detail many questions that have now proven to be appropriate questions that needed to be asked, and right then, I didn't believe it was an overdose,' she said.
'And then when they overturned it to sepsis … I asked questions again, like if you're going to say sepsis, how did you come to that? And that's when I was like, this isn't adding up.'
2:19
VPD releases new information about missing B.C. Indigenous woman
The family commissioned an independent pathologist who disagreed with that conclusion, finding the cause of death should be ruled undetermined.
Natasha said she also had to fight to have a rape kit performed on her daughter's body, despite the fact the 20-year-old was found partially clothed.
She said investigators offered 'every excuse' as to why her daughter would be unclothed, 'except the most reasonable,' adding she was given the impression the 'whole investigation was based off of bias and prejudice.'
Story continues below advertisement
She also questions why there was no CCTV footage of her daughter entering the vessel, despite the boat yard having 24-hour security.
Hard to regain my trust
While she considers the inquest a victory, Natasha said it will be hard not to be skeptical going into it.
'I think it's gonna be hard to regain my trust after the three years,' she said.
Under B.C. law, inquests are fact-finding exercises that cannot delegate blame but can make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
3:44
Remains of Noelle O'Soup overlooked in Vancouver apartment building for months
Natasha said that's somewhat frustrating, given many of the recommendations she believes it will generate will simply echo the 231 Calls for Justice laid out by the 2019 National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. According to the Assembly of First Nations, just two of those calls for justice have been fully implemented, six years later.
Story continues below advertisement
'I hope they start implementing those calls to justice; like, there's things that could have prevented my daughter from passing. There's already been requests made, you know, recommendations made,' she said.
'We could have three women, two women and a young girl alive today if these recommendations had been implemented.'
She added that she'd like to see a more fulsome probe of how the investigation itself was handled, rather than simply the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death.
2:11
Vancouver officers investigated for neglect of duty in Chelsea Poorman case
And she said it will be hard to feel peace until similar inquests are called into the deaths of Noelle O'Soup and Chelsea Poorman — whose families have both raised similar concerns.
Despite that, she said she won't hesitate to attend the inquest.
Story continues below advertisement
'I'll do whatever it takes to make sure she gets the justice she deserves,' she said.
'In the hopes to bring awareness and get the justice for the other girls as well, because they deserve an inquest as much as Tatyanna.'
The coroner's office says Poorman and O'Soup's cases still remain open.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
20 hours ago
- Global News
The Calgary Party proposes ‘no rough sleeping' zone around Stephen Avenue
One of Calgary's main political parties running a slate of candidates in the upcoming municipal election is proposing rules prohibiting overnight camping or rough sleeping near Stephen Avenue. The policy is part of an overall safety platform unveiled this week by The Calgary Party, led by mayoral candidate Brian Thiessen. The platform suggests the party would create 'no overnight sleeping zones,' and 'enforce rules prohibiting overnight camping or rough sleeping within a two to three block radius of Stephen Avenue.' 'These are human beings who feel unsafe, and so they sleep in public places so that they will feel safe from an overdose, from theft,' Thissen said Friday. 'That's overlapping with business owners and the public who want to enjoy these public spaces.' The rules around rough sleeping are limited in Calgary, with a section of the city's Parks and Pathways Bylaw that deals with camping/erecting camping tents in a park. Story continues below advertisement According to a city spokesperson, their Vulnerable Persons Team works with partner agencies to help people experiencing homelessness in finding a safe space to transition and out of the elements. In an interview with Global News, Thiessen said the party's platform focuses on providing housing first to address homelessness. 'You've housed people, you're treating them for mental health and addiction issues, and then you can get to the part which a lot of people start with, which is we want to get people off the streets,' he said. The party's downtown policy also includes measures to increase police presence downtown, crackdown on open drug use, panhandling near roadways, loitering in transit areas, and an expansion of mental health and addictions support. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'It's always tricky because you don't want to layer on tickets and fines to the unhoused and make it impossible for them to dig their way out,' Thiessen said. 'That discussion about bylaws has to happen in conjunction with community courts.' Wendy Irvine, who runs the Unicorn Pub on Stephen Avenue, told Global News her staff experiences social disorder issues daily. When asked about The Calgary Party's proposal, Irvine said she is supportive of cleaning up Stephen Avenue, but wonders about the impact. Story continues below advertisement 'Totally enforce it, but where are they moving into? For us at the Unicorn, we have the back alley, and that's where they all go,' she said. Global News reached out to several local homelessness advocates but did not hear back. The proposal echoes a letter, obtained by Global News, from 18 downtown business and property owners sent to the mayor, premier, city council, the province as well as municipal election candidates. View full screen View full screen View full screen View full screen Previous Image Next Image Close Modal Gallery 'When will we take action to address what those who live here already know — that Calgary is no longer the clean, safe and welcoming city of which we have always been so proud,' the letter said. Story continues below advertisement The letter recommends several proposals to expand permanent day and night shelter for the unhoused, improve safety in the downtown core and along Stephen Avenue, and reform of municipal bylaws to make it easier to enforce expectations of behaviour in public spaces. A 'no rough sleeping' zone around Stephen Avenue is also amongst the proposals. 'The amount of damages and things that we have been seeing and witnessing comes on the burden of obviously the building owners, but that gets transferred down to the tenants,' said Mark Garner with the Calgary Downtown Association. 'We can't just replace windows in one of the businesses down here and two weeks later it's broken. We've got to do something different.' According to the most recent citizen satisfaction survey, 94 per cent of respondents agree that the city should be doing more to address safety issues in Calgary's downtown. In its latest State of the Downtown report, the city noted calls for downtown safety response by peace officers, security guards and community partners are down 12 per cent since last April. Calgarians head to the polls in the next municipal election on Oct. 20.
Toronto Star
21 hours ago
- Toronto Star
‘Pretendian' or ‘victim': Inside this would-be Ontario lawyer's attempt to remake a life built on fraud
Before the headlines, Nadya Gill's life was filled with promise. Originally from the GTA, she played on Canada's youth national soccer team. At 16, she entered university in the U.S. on athletic scholarships, where she excelled on the pitch and in the classroom and earned the first of five post-secondary degrees. A coach told a Connecticut TV station her competitive drive could easily lead her to becoming a lawyer, a doctor, or 'a UN ambassador.' She graduated from law school, where she won awards and worked summers at the Crown law office in Toronto. After passing the bar exam, she landed a dream articling position at a sports law firm. It allowed her to work remotely and play professional soccer in Norway. Then came the rumblings online; her life fell apart — and she had to pick a new name. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Two years ago, Nadya Gill and her twin, Amira, now 26, were outed as 'pretendians,' first by online sleuths and then a reporter in Nunavut, for falsely claiming to be Inuit to receive scholarships and grants. In September 2023, the RCMP charged the sisters and their mother, Karima Manji, with fraud. Last year, it was Manji alone who pleaded guilty, admitting she sent enrolment forms to Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) with the false information that she'd adopted her own daughters from an Iqaluit woman. The forms were approved and she was provided enrolment cards that entitled the twins access to benefits earmarked for Inuit students. Manji had in fact given birth to her daughters in Mississauga in 1998. In court, it was revealed that the girls had received more than $158,000 for their education from September 2020 to March 2023. Contributors Opinion The violence of pretending to be Indigenous The recent call for organizing a Canada-wide dialogue about Indigenous identity by the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) is a solid step Contributors Opinion The violence of pretending to be Indigenous The recent call for organizing a Canada-wide dialogue about Indigenous identity by the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) is a solid step To many, Nadya's successes were a slap in the face and a reminder of the harm caused by more famous Canadians who've been exposed for falsely claiming to be Indigenous. In March 2024, Toronto Life magazine published an exposé on the family under the headline, 'The Great Pretenders: How two faux-Inuit sisters cashed in on a life of deception.' It went to press before a judge in Iqaluit sentenced Manji to three years in prison and called the twins 'victims.' On a warm sunny morning this past week in an Etobicoke park not far from where she grew up, the Star spoke with Nadya Gill under her new name, Jordan Archer, about her involvement in Canada's first criminal case of Indigenous identity fraud. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW It's the first time she has spoken publicly about the scandal that she says has destroyed her life. In the basic facts, Archer's story is this: She's a first-generation Canadian, born to a mother who immigrated from Tanzania and lived for only a brief period in Nunavut. Her father, Gurmail Gill, is British. No member of the family is Inuit, nor of Indigenous background. Still, Archer says, the story the public thinks they know is wrong — not that her version will convince everyone who sees her as a villain. For the first time since the scandal broke in 2023, Jordan Archer speaks about being at the centre of Canada's first criminal case of Indigenous identity fraud. The daughter of a 'proven fraudster' 'How would you have expected me to know,' Archer says, referring to her teenage self while sitting on a park bench in athletic wear after jumping off an old hybrid bike. 'Put yourself in my shoes. If your mom came up to you, gave you the story, with proof.' 'Proof,' Archer says, was the Inuit enrolment card her mother applied for — by outright fraud — in February 2016, when Archer was 17 and already going to school in the U.S. Like many teens, Archer says she was only too happy to let her mother handle all her applications, finances and logistics. Manji was controlling, the kind of 'soccer mom' who would scold her daughter after a match if she hadn't performed up to her standards. She was also someone a judge would call a 'habitual and persistent fraudster.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW At the time she filed the false applications, Manji was already facing serious fraud charges. In August 2017, she was sentenced to defrauding the charity March of Dimes, her longtime employer, of $850,000, for which she received a non-custodial sentence after reimbursing $650,000. Karima Manji, seen after her arrest in the March of Dimes fraud case. Toronto Police Service As unlikely as it may sound — the case was publicized — Archer says she wasn't aware of those charges until much later. At the time, she was living in the U.S. and had distanced herself from her mom, who still controlled many of her life decisions. She returned home from school in the U.S. at 20, which is when Manji told her: 'You're going to Saskatchewan … to a program where you'll do property law in the summer. It's for Indigenous students.' That's when, she says, Manji presented her with 'officially issued proof' — the Inuit enrolment card — and told her 'the story.' Manji had lived in Iqaluit in the '90s and had grown close to an Inuit family. That much was true. As her mother explained, when the father became ill with cancer, Manji took care of a daughter. That connection, Manji lied, had made her eligible for Inuit enrolment and, by extension, so were her daughters. Should Archer have questioned things? Maybe. But she says she believed her mother. In the interview, she likened the logic of her mom's explanation to a marriage — it wasn't a blood tie but 'a connection.' (In retrospect, this explanation is nonsense. To qualify, an applicant must both be Inuk according to Inuit customs and identify as an Inuk.) ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Still, Archer emphasizes that she accepted and embraced the connection she now thought she had — believing in some way that 'I belonged to the Iqaluit community.' She says she immersed herself in learning about Indigenous culture and participated in ceremonies, activities and educational sessions. She volunteered for the Akwesasne Community Justice Program and facilitated Kairos blanket exercises where participants step into roles of Indigenous groups throughout Canadian history. If she knew about the fraud, why would she do that, she asks. 'I think if you're trying to hide something, you stay under the radar.' As for what the card meant, Archer says she was kept in the dark as her mom secured tens of thousands of dollars for her education. 'I know the card gets you benefits, you have some kind of status with it, but I had no idea what (Manji) was doing with it.' Who questions their parents about things that happened before they were born, she asks? 'I know my dad's from England … I didn't say, 'Show me your birth certificate.'' 'Our communities are small, we know each other' The Iqaluit RCMP charged both Manji and the twins with defrauding the NTI — the organization tasked with enrolling Inuit children under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement — in September 2023. As is often the case with fraud, the big lie ended up being trivially easy to disprove. Manji had written on the application forms that Nadya and Amira were the birth daughters of a real Inuk woman named Kitty Noah, and then the application was approved without a shred of proof. (While there's no question her mother 'dug this hole,' Archer asks how the bogus application forms could have been accepted without a birth certificate.) ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Manji then used the girls' status cards to apply for benefits from Kakivak Association, an organization that, among other things, provides sponsorship funding to help Inuit students from Baffin Island pay for education. By early 2023, while Archer was articling and had already played in Norway, social media users began questioning the story of the successful 'Inuit' sisters from Toronto with the South Asian names. 'Our communities are small, we know each other. We know of each other and our families. There are only around 70,000 of us in Canada,' famed Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq wrote in a tweet asking how the twins could get scholarships meant for Inuit students. 'The resources and supports are limited.' In late March 2023, a reporter with Nunatsiaq News asked Amira to respond to the social media allegations. In a statement, Amira passed on Manji's story, that the twins' 'Inuit family ties' were through a family her mother had lived with. (Amira Gill declined to be interviewed for this story. 'My sister has chosen to keep her life personal, away from the public eye,' Archer said when asked about her twin.) But that's not what Manji put on the form; NTI soon released a statement that Noah was not the twins' birth mother and asked the RCMP to investigate. Kitty Noah has since died. When she found out she'd been listed on the application, she was 'flabbergasted,' her son later told CBC. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Why Jordan Archer wants to tell her story Today, Archer says she struggles to make ends meet. She's working part-time at a hockey rink as a community service representative, 'directing people to the lost and found.' A Zamboni driver recently asked about her background. 'How much time do you have?' Archer told him, recalling the exchange. 'No matter what career I try to explore, I don't want this to come back.' Michelle Mengsu Chang/ Toronto Star She lost friends along with her articling job. In the wake of the case, the Law Society of Ontario initiated an investigation into her status as a lawyer. To practise law in Ontario, applicants for a licence must be of 'good character'; Archer feels she has no choice but to abandon a law career, at least at this point. She says she used to be puzzled when people described being debilitated by stress, but 'now, I really, really do understand. There were months when I wouldn't move or go anywhere.' Last fall, Archer thought she'd found a lifeline and signed a contract to play pro soccer. She felt she had been forthright about her past before signing but, ultimately, the league decided to rescind its approval of the contract. She was devastated. But it was also a 'turning point' — the realization she had to do something to try to clear the air and provide a 'fulsome' picture of the story. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'No matter what career I try to explore, I don't want this to come back.' She's since written a memoir, titling it 'When Life Conspired Against Me.' A summary provided to the Star described the book as an examination of the toll of the public backlash that destroyed her professional reputation. She's 'a victim of online bullying and was crucified in the media, despite not being involved in the fraud,' the summary reads. (The book does not have a publisher.) 'I'm serving a life sentence for a crime I didn't commit,' Archer says in a prepared blurb. 'I was the victim, but that means nothing when the court of public opinion plays both judge and executioner. In their story, I'm the villain, and that's all that matters.' Looking back, Archer says she now knows her mom would have pursued any chance at an advantage. 'She saw, you know, a bureaucratic loophole and she just went for it,' she says. 'Whether it was an Indigenous community or any other community, she would have just gone for it.' Confronting her mom was 'one of the hardest things I've ever had to do,' she told the Star in the days after the interview. Their relationship is messy, she adds. 'She didn't just hurt me, she detonated my life … and yet she's my mom.' She feels a 'heavy, inescapable obligation' to still be there for her mother, but 'supporting her didn't mean forgetting the harm. It didn't mean pretending everything was OK.' 'She trusted me 120 per cent' Soon after Manji pleaded guilty last year, the Crown withdrew the charges against Nadya and Amira. In response, the then-president of NTI called the withdrawal of charges against the twins 'unacceptable.' The twins 'benefitted from their mother's fraud scheme, and yet their role in the scheme will go unanswered,' Aluki Kotierk told Toronto Life. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW There's little chance Archer's story will convince anyone who believes she should have known. 'How can they say they didn't know they were not Inuit,' one First Nations advocate wrote on X. To those skeptics, Archer says she never claimed to be Inuk by blood; that was her mom's lie. Still, she hopes the doubters read the judge's words. Canada 'Egregious exploitation': Toronto woman sentenced to 3 years for Inuit identity fraud Karima Manji, who is not Indigenous, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000, after her twin daughters used fake Inuit status to receive Canada 'Egregious exploitation': Toronto woman sentenced to 3 years for Inuit identity fraud Karima Manji, who is not Indigenous, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000, after her twin daughters used fake Inuit status to receive 'The true victims of Ms. Manji's crime are the Inuit of Nunavut,' Iqaluit judge Mia Manocchio wrote. Manji 'defrauded the Inuit of Nunavut by stealing their identity. She has further victimized the Noah family and the memory of Kitty Noah. This is an egregious example of the exploitation of Indigenous Peoples.' 'Finally,' Manocchio continued, 'Ms. Manji has victimized her own children, her two daughters, whose lives and careers have been severely compromised by her fraud.' Manji is now serving a three-year sentence — a term that, the judge wrote, serves as 'a signal to any future Indigenous pretender that the false appropriation of Indigenous identity in a criminal context will draw a significant penalty.' Manji was also ordered to pay back $28,254 — what remained after she had already reimbursed $130,000. (Not that the 'proven fraudster' deserved any credit for paying back the fruits of her crimes, Manocchio wrote — 'if such were the case, then a fraudster with means could essentially buy their way into a reduced prison term, whereas an impecunious fraudster would serve the longer term.') Reached by phone at a halfway house, where she was in the middle of drywalling, Manji, 60, insisted to the Star that Nadya — she doesn't call her Jordan — was unaware of the scheme. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'I never, ever said a word to Nadya,' she said. 'She trusted me 120 per cent, if you can imagine, when this all started, she was in the States … her whole focus was on soccer.' Manji said she is appalled by the hurt she caused not only to Inuit communities, but to her own children, 'especially Nadya.' (The girls have an older brother.) While serving some of her sentence at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Manji said it would take weeks to read her daughter's letters, because 'I just feel so awful.' Unprompted, Manji offers up an explanation for her actions: She was brought up in a strict, conservative family and believed that if you were a doctor, lawyer or engineer, 'you would do fine in life.' She had an unhappy upbringing and marriage and wanted to make sure her kids didn't go through that. 'If I made sure they were successful in terms of their education and career, that they wouldn't have to have gone through what I've gone through,' she says.
Global News
a day ago
- Global News
Minnesota state lawmaker, husband killed in targeted shooting: officials
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in a politically motivated assassination. A second lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded. 'We must all, in Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence,' Walz said at a press conference Saturday. 'Those responsible for this will be held accountable.' The wounded lawmaker was identified as state Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, was first elected in 2012. He runs Hoffman Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm. He previously served as vice chair of the Anoka Hennepin School Board, which manages the largest school district in Minnesota. Hoffman is married and has one daughter. Hortman was the top House Democratic leader in the state Legislature and a former House speaker. She was first elected in 2004. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Both Hoffman and Hortman represented districts located north of Minneapolis. Story continues below advertisement Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said that authorities were actively searching for a suspect. Officials said the suspect was dressed as a law enforcement officer. Autopsies will be done to determine extent of injuries, but Hortman and her spouse died from gunshot wounds, Evans said. Public Safety Commissioner Bob Johnson said the suspect was posing as a law enforcement officer. 'Suspect exploited the trust of our uniforms, what our uniforms are meant to represent. That betrayal is deeply disturbing to those of us who wear the badge with honor and responsibility,' he shootings happened at a time when political leaders nationwide have been attacked, harassed and intimidated during a time of deep political divisions. GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released the following statement. 'I am horrified and heartbroken by last night's attack on two patriotic public servants,' Giffords said. 'My family and I know the horror of a targeted shooting all too well. An attack against lawmakers is an attack on American democracy itself. Leaders must speak out and condemn the fomenting violent extremism that threatens everything this country stands for.' Giffords was shot in the head in 2011 by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. She stepped down from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery.
