Red Dress Alert program must be put in place by May 2026: Giganawenimaanaanig

CBC

03-06-2025

All levels of government must act quickly to establish a notification system by May 2026 that would help find missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in Manitoba, the organization spearheading the project says.
A Red Dress Alert would prompt notifications to the public whenever an Indigenous woman, girl or two-spirit person goes missing, as an Amber Alert does now for missing children.
Giganawenimaanaanig, the Manitoba committee implementing calls for justice from the national MMIWG inquiry, released an interim report on Tuesday detailing the development thus far of the program, which started after Manitoba MP Leah Gazan put forth a motion in Parliament in 2023 to fund an alert system.
Survivors, family members, leadership and representatives from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities attended 29 engagement sessions held as of January throughout the province in northern, southern, rural and urban communities, the report says.
The program will differ from pre-existing notification systems, since it will be guided by those families and communities, project lead Sandra Delaronde said.
"This alert is really going to be built on their words," she said at a news conference on Tuesday. "When a Red Dress Alert saves a life, it's because of all the people who provided their ideas, thoughts and opinions on how this should be done in a good way."
A public survey is currently being conducted for those who were unable to attend the engagement sessions, with over 1,000 responses received in the month of May alone, Delaronde said.
Participants in the engagement sessions stressed the "extreme urgency" of establishing an effective notification system, the report says, and Giganawenimaanaanig now calls on all three levels of government to get the program running by May 2026 at the latest.
Participants also said there's no single technique or technology for an alert system to reach everyone, but they'd want it to be more than just a way to distribute missing persons reports, which can desensitize the public with frequent use, the report says.
Clear criteria for the notification system must be widely publicized, participants said, and expectations of how police and other government agencies should respond to cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls must also be written into law to ensure accountability, the report says.
The alert system will also need a co-operative and co-ordinated effort across jurisdictions and between agencies to keep tabs on youth who've run away from foster care, as well as those experiencing gender-based violence, housing insecurity and/or human trafficking, the report says.