Canada and Manitoba Develop Red Dress Alert for Missing Indigenous Women and Girls

Canada and Manitoba are partnering to launch an alert system to alert the public when an Indigenous woman or girl goes missing, they announced Friday ahead of a national day of crisis recognition in Winnipeg.

The long-awaited red shirt alert system is a proposal to prevent deaths and increase safe reunions with loved ones.

Statistics Canada concluded in a report last year that homicide rates for Indigenous women and girls are six times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

A national study concluded five years ago they were 12 times more likely to be missing or murdered.

“This is a historic moment and a huge step toward ending the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and people of all genders,” said NDP MP Leah Gazan, who leads federal protections.

“As we celebrate this historic moment, it's important to remember that we won't operate until the Red Shirt Alert is needed.”

The Manitoba pilot is expected to be developed and piloted with Indigenous peoples and inform the national warning system.

It is funded by money allocated in this year's federal and provincial budgets.

Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba's Minister of Women and Gender Equality, said she has heard from community members who believe the alert system will help reduce the risk to Indigenous women and girls.

“We look forward to working with local partners in Manitoba to find the best way forward as we build this pilot project.”

Crown and Indigenous Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangari said Winnipeg — and greater Manitoba — is the epicenter of the crisis, and launching a Red Shirt alert there offers solutions that could be implemented across the country.

“This is not the only solution, but it is an important point for us to solve the immediate crisis.”

Gazan's efforts on the file led to a House of Commons committee investigating the future of the national alert system.

Her fellow MPs unanimously supported her motion in the House of Commons last year to declare the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a public health emergency in Canada.

The movement also called for the federal government to fund a new alert system that would work like Amber Alerts.

Other North American jurisdictions already have similar alert systems, including Washington State's Missing Natives System.

The 2019 final report of a national inquiry found that violence against Indigenous women, girls and people of gender diversity is at the root of the willful violation of rights.

The final report called for 231 justices aimed at governments, social service providers, industry and Canadians, but relatively little progress has been made so far.

Sheila North, a former chief of Manitoba's Keewatinowi Okimakanak and former journalist, has been an active advocate for ending violence against Indigenous women.

He said while news of the warning system is welcome, he hopes expectations remain reasonable — at least for now.

“There will be bumps in the road — challenges that none of us have seen before,” he said. “Someone is bound to be disappointed.”

But it's a starting point, he said. “I think it's about time.”

To those who don't see the point of an alert system for local women, North said people of that identity have been shut out of many parts of society “for a long time” and that death is “a result of that.”

A House of Commons committee investigating the warning heard evidence from experts who said any system must be locally-led.

This is partly to alleviate the problems of police inaction and bureaucratic red tape so that the public can be informed of disappearances quickly and effectively.

Jennifer Jesty, who serves as the sustainability manager for the Mi'kmaq Union of Nova Scotia, spoke to MPs about their efforts to implement an emergency alert system for their communities and minimize police intervention.

As of September 2020, Jesty told the committee it had sent 183 alerts by the end of March, resulting in 67 people being reunited with their families — the vast majority of whom were returned with their families within an hour of the alert.

“Because we developed this system, we were able to create our own protocols for when, how and why to send or not send an alert,” Jesti said.

“There was not a single request for an alert that was denied, and each alert was sent within minutes of receiving the information.”

— With files from Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg.

Alessia Passafium, Canadian Press