Feds, province make progress on Red Dress Alerts

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This article was published 04/10/2024 (588 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The federal and provincial governments say they’ve held preliminary discussions around setting up an alert system to notify the public when an Indigenous woman, girl, two-spirit or gender-diverse person is reported missing.

The Red Dress Alert system was first announced in May, with $1.3 million in federal funding and plans to set up the pilot project in Manitoba before a potential rollout across the country. It would work similar to Amber Alerts, which are used when a child is abducted in Canada.

Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, in Winnipeg Friday, said Giganawenimaanaanig (formerly Manitoba’s MMWG2S+ Implementation Committee) would partner on the project.

“I think most governments used to, say, ‘Let’s set up a phone line, let’s set up a complaint process, let’s set up a system,’ without actually engaging and fully bringing on people who are impacted the most, who have ground level experience, who have been working with family members of those who have gone missing, and I think that’s really the difference,” he said.

“It’s about decolonizing the way that we do this type of work and not saying this is as usual.”

Few details were offered on the alert system Friday, but speakers said it would ideally be up and running in 2025. Anandasangaree said it was too early to say if the alert would be distributed by police.

Friday was recognized as Sisters in Spirit Day across Canada, an annual initiative that sees vigils held across the country in memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Statistics Canada said in a report last year that the homicide rate for Indigenous females was six times higher than the rate for their non-Indigenous counterparts.

The alert will come with infrastructure to support people who are found, said Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba’s minister responsible for women and gender equity.

“We’re saying, in our province, we value Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited (people), and should you go missing, we will have an infrastructure to address that,” she said. “We will have an infrastructure that will act immediately to bring you home.”

— staff