Content warning: The following story contains details of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Individuals impacted by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls can contact the MMIWG Crisis Line toll-free at 1-844-413-6649.
May 5 is Red Dress Day, a day where Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit persons (MMIWG2S) are recognized and remembered.
On May 2, the House of Commons voted unanimously in favour of declaring MMIWG2S a nation-wide emergency and also agreed to provide funding for an alert system to inform the public when an Indigenous person is missing.
Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Leah Gazan has long called for a national Red Dress Alert system, and it was her motion that received universal backing from her colleagues in the House of Commons.
“This is a crisis,” said Gazan on Tuesday. “People are going murdered and missing everyday. We are precious. We are valuable. We are loved and we are not garbage.”
Gazan was referring in her statement to the bodies of Indigenous women from her riding being found in a Winnipeg landfill in late 2022 and early 2023.
“I’m standing alongside my sisters today, to support their calls on the government to fully support a Canada-wide Emergency, and immediately support the development of a Canada-wide Red Dress Alert system without delay,” Gazan added.
In addition to the Canada-wide emergency and Red Dress Alert system, Gazan also called on the government for a housing and social support system for children aging out of the childcare system. She has also been calling for a guaranteed livable basic income and is asking the government to carry out prevention initiatives that honour the rights of Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit peoples.
MMIWG2S an ongoing crisis
Indigenous peoples make up five per cent of Canada’s total population, but according to Canada’s own Ministry of Justice, in 2017 Indigenous women accounted for 10 per cent of all missing Canadian women. In 2014, Indigenous women accounted for 21 per cent of all murdered women in Canada.
Even in the same week where the Red Dress Alert initiative found strong political support in Ottawa, stories of assault against Indigenous women continued to appear in headlines in Canada.
The body of an eight-year-old Indigenous girl was found near Samson Cree First Nation in Alberta, the autopsy concluding the girl was a victim of homicide.
Sandra Delaronde of the Cross Lake First Nation and co-chair of Manitoba’s MMIWG2S Coalition spoke at a press conference alongside Gazan after the House of Commons vote.
“We have no time to waste. Everyday that goes by, we have at least two women and girls that go missing,” she said. “We have on a weekly basis, our Indigenous sisters, mothers, daughters and granddaughters that go murdered. The time to wait is gone.”
Government has been slow to respond to MMIWG2S crisis
In 2021, the federal government announced a national action plan to address 231 calls to action that were issued by a national inquiry into MMIWG2S, however, one year after it was introduced, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) found that few of the calls to action had been implemented.
READ MORE: One year after introducing action plan, feds continue to abandon MMIWG
In a press release sent by the NWAC to media prior to Tuesday’s vote, Mel Critch co-chair of Manitoba Moon Voices Inc. blasted the federal government for their continued lack of action.
“This is alarming and needs to be addressed immediately due to the on-going genocide, compounded by the lack of implementation of the 231 Calls for Justice and therefore lack of human security our Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse peoples face,” said Critch.
The unanimous consent motion introduced by Gazan and passed in the House of Commons was non-binding, but Gazan said that this massive show of support from MPs should push the government to take steps to make a Red Dress Alert system a reality.
“When I put forward that unanimous consent motion today, if members of Parliament and this House really care about gender-based violence; if this government really cares about gender-based violence, I will feel affirmed to know that there will be nobody opposing in the House. And we will be watching. This genocide needs to end. We are not garbage,” Gazan said.
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