NDP MP Leah Gazan rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, June 21, 2021. Gazan is requesting the federal government establish a system where the public receives a phone notification when Indigenous women go missing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – An NDP member of Parliament is asking the federal government to establish a system that would send the public a phone notification when an Indigenous woman goes missing.
Leah Gazan penned a letter to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino last Friday urging the government fund what she and other advocates call a “Red Dress Alert” program.
Gazan says it would be similar to the Amber Alert, which is an emergency notification people receive on their phones when a child in their region has been abducted or is believed to be in danger.
The Winnipeg MP says that if the public is better informed when Indigenous women and girls disappear, it will increase the likelihood that they are found.
In her letter, she points to the disappearances and deaths of at least four First Nations women who Winnipeg police believe were murdered by the same man.
Gazan says that because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recognized the crisis in missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls as a genocide, he must act urgently to better protect them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2023.
