Winnipeg MP pushes 'Red Shirt' alert system for MMIW

A Manitoba lawmaker is trying to create an alert system to alert the public when Indigenous women go missing — hoping it will lead to fewer deaths and safer reunions with loved ones.

“This is a critical initiative,” New Democrat MP Leah Gazan of Winnipeg Center said last month when a House of Commons committee began examining her Red Shirt Alert proposal.

“This is a life-saving initiative.”

Gazan MPs unanimously backed his motion last year to declare the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a Canadian emergency. The motion also called for funding for a new alert system for missing children and the elderly.

MPs are now discussing with experts and stakeholders how to implement such a system across the country.

The 2019 report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls found widespread rights violations at the root of violence against Indigenous women, girls and people of gender diversity.

The final report included 231 calls for justice directed at governments, social service providers, industry and Canadians, but relatively little progress has been made to date, particularly on the federal side.

Between 2009 and 2021, homicide rates among Indigenous women and girls were six times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts, Statistics Canada concluded in a report released last year.

The report also found that killings of Indigenous women and girls resulted in the most serious homicide charges compared to cases where the victims were non-Indigenous.

Sheila North, a former chief of Okimakanak's Keewatinowi Okimakanak, Manitoba, and a former journalist, said she often comes across examples of police inaction when reporting on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

“There's always been dismissal, even disrespect and neglect for our families and friends, and we're trying to make some movement to raise awareness and investigate,” North said in an interview.

“There was always a common thread where the officer said, 'Wait a minute, they're probably drunk, they're partying,'” he said.

“Or, 'they have the right to leave, they can take a vacation,' because most of these families know very well that they can't.”

The Gaza Red Shirt warning proposal is being investigated by the House of Commons Status of Women Committee, which heard testimony from a number of experts who called for the initiative to be indigenously led.

Such a model, they say, alleviates the problem of police inaction as well as bureaucratic red tape, ensuring that members of the public are quickly and efficiently informed of disappearances.

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.

Since September 2020, Jesty told the committee he had sent out 183 alerts and had reunited 67 people with their families as a result – 96 percent of whom were reunited with their families within an hour of the alert.

In one case, Jesty said she issued an alert after a man approached a young Aboriginal woman and attempted to solicit her for sex. As a result, all 3,000 subscribers immediately learned about the potential threat.

Community members then shared the alert online through their social media pages, furthering its reach and helping prevent further recruitment efforts in the neighborhood, he testified.

“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.”

The Jesty Alert System, supplied by Everbridge, allows messages to be sent via text, call, email, and can even alert people via landline — an important form of communication for older community members or those in remote communities with unreliable cell service.

While Jesty says her alert system cuts down on paperwork, she still makes sure loved ones call the police and make sure there's a record, making sure they're not just “in auntie's place.”

Buying the police took time, he said, “and some of the things they said to me were not very nice.” But when police saw value in using the alerts to help their investigations, they started calling Jesty.

“In my ideal world, I would like to bring this warning system to every local community across the country,” Jesty told MPs when asked how such a warning system could be rolled out across the country.

“Does it save lives?” I think it already is.”

Other North American jurisdictions already have similar alert systems, including Washington State's Missing Local Person system, which works in conjunction with the Amber Alert and Silver Alert programs.

While experts say the warnings are necessary to keep local women and girls safe, the North dreams of a time when they will no longer be needed.

But first, there must be significant change, she said, including removing the barriers Indigenous women and girls face in accessing employment, social services and law enforcement. Then indigenous women, girls, transgender and two-spirit people can better protect themselves and their livelihoods.

“So that predators have less power over us,” he said.

Until then, North said, redshirt alerts can make the public aware of how widespread the problem is, making the faces behind the statistics harder to avoid.

“I hope this serves as a reminder that the problem still exists,” he said. “It's a reminder of the truth about what's happening to Canada's first people.”