2 weeks ago
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A Manitoba Red Dress Alert program must launch no later June 2026 and be implemented through an Indigenous-led independent organization, says a report released Tuesday.
The final report on the Red Dress Alert emphasizes the importance of Indigenous control as well Indigenous cultural and spiritual practices guiding the organization in order to ensure trust from those it will serve.
The 40-page report comes out of 43 public engagement sessions over the past year on how a Red Dress Alert system should work.
"We are now calling on Manitoba to adopt provincial Red Dress Alert legislation to ensure that this commitment to protecting the lives of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people will endure," Sandra DeLaronde wrote in the report, which was released at an event in Winnipeg.
DeLaronde is chair of Giganawenimaanaanig, the committee that headed up the report and engagement sessions. Giganawenimaanaanig translates as "we all take care of them."
"In the last five years alone, 104 Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ relatives have been murdered in Manitoba. That number is already equal to the total number of our loved ones lost in the entire preceding decade," DeLaronde wrote.
"This is a crisis that demands co-ordinated, urgent action."
A Red Dress Alert law is necessary to establish clear protocols and processes, ensure accountability at all levels and facilitate cross-jurisdictional co-operation and co-ordination while maintaining autonomy, the report says.
The alert would quickly mobilize police, government agencies, service organizations and communities in the critical hours after an Indigenous woman, girl, two-spirit or gender diverse person goes missing.
It would also send a notification to people's mobile phones, similar to how an Amber Alert works.
The report stresses the "extreme urgency" of establishing an effective notification system and Giganawenimaanaanig is now calling on all three levels of government to get the program running by June 2026 at the latest.
Asked if his government would create Red Dress legislation, Premier Wab Kinew, speaking to reporters at another event in the city, said he's "open to taking steps to making people safer," but deferred additional comment to the MMIWG2S+ and gender-based violence committee of cabinet.
DeLaronde said she's confident the alert will be in place within the next seven months.
"One way or another, it will be done."
More than an alert
The Red Dress system must be more than just an alert, the report says. It must play an integral role in a comprehensive, holistic and co-ordinated response that is culturally safe and trauma-informed.
It should provide 24/7 wraparound supports for families, survivors and communities, and include emotional, crisis and mental health services, financial assistance and long-term healing supports and resources.
It should reach out to organizations and service providers that may have had contact with the missing person, sending targeted alert to communities, neighbourhoods and organizations most likely to have information about the missing person.
Not everyone has a cellphone or internet access, especially in northern communities, so a wide range of media and technology must be used to get the word out, the report says.
"Use of Indigenous languages is also critical," it says.
Often, communities have to use their own limited resources to conduct searches and rely on grassroots networks and volunteers in the absence of adequate institutional support.
A partnership between Canada and Manitoba for a Red Dress Alert pilot program was announced in May 2024, after Manitoba MP Leah Gazan put forth a motion in Parliament the previous year to fund an alert system.
Gazan's motion followed a Statistics Canada report that indicated the homicide rate for Indigenous women and girls was six times higher than for their non-Indigenous counterparts.
The 2019 report from the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls said they are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered.
The Red Dress Alert project team was established in December 2024 and led by Giganawenimaanaanig. From January to October 2025, it did 43 community engagement sessions in rural and urban communities across Manitoba.
Participants included families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, people from the 2SLGBTQ+ community, representatives from Indigenous organizations and governments, community service agencies, police and provincial government agencies, and other organizations identified as essential partners, such as child and family services, hospitality and transportation industry partners, and experts in sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
A public survey for those unable to attend the engagement sessions also collected more than 1,000 responses.
Sagkeeng First Nation has the highest per-capita rate in Canada of missing and murdered women, girls and 2SLGBTQ+ persons, Chief E.J. Fontaine said.
"That's having a deep, deep impact in our community, and we're struggling on a day-to-day basis to climb out of that crisis," he said. The community's list of missing people includes men and boys, he said.
One of the missing was 15-year-old Tina Fontaine. She was in Winnipeg when she went missing in July 2014 and her body, wrapped in a duvet cover and weighted down by rocks, was pulled from the Red River the following month.
"The grandmother, Thelma Favel, tried so hard to get help while Tina was in the city," said Marilyn Courchene, former Sagkeeng councillor and a friend of Favel.
Courchene said Favel called many different authorities, including police.
"They kept hanging the phone up, saying, 'She's not ours, she's not our problem."
Sagkeeng, 90 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, hosted the first engagement session in January because of its MMIWG significance.
"We need a system that acts fast, respects our culture and supports families, not just alerts. So this comprehensive, holistic Red Dress Alerts system is a big, big step," Chief Fontaine said, flanked by women holding photographs of missing people.
"It's more than an alert system — it’s a safety framework."
'Arbitrary delays'
A common refrain among respondents at the engagement sesssions was a reluctance to contact police when a loved one might be in danger, because authorities are "not viewed as trustworthy or culturally competent," the report says.
People spoke of traumatic experiences of navigating systems and resources while police routinely told people they had to wait 24 to 48 hours before filing a missing persons report, when that is not actually the policy, the report says.
"Alerts should be issued without arbitrary delays" and use a variety of communication systems — radio, social media, interactive website, posters and mobile applications — to ensure quick and wide dissemination, the report says.
A Red Dress Alert system would be a first point of contact to ensure prompt, respectful recording of missing persons reports, liaising with police.
Winnipeg police Chief Gene Bowers called the release of the report "an important milestone in our shared goal of safety to all Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ persons in Manitoba."
He acknowledged the relationship between police and Indigenous communities has been strained at times "and marked by harm and mistrust," and said he believes a Red Dress Alert will address gaps within the current MMIWG system.
"I support the final report's key findings from community engagement and commit to walking the path of reconciliation together. We will continue to take action to restore relationships and culturally appropriate collaboration,” he said.
While Giganawenimaanaanig says its role in the process is now complete, it also says the organization ultimately in charge of the alert system must manage, oversee and control its own data system and have ongoing government funding, or it won't work.
"Having us control that data and use that data to design systems that are going to work for us is so, so important," Fontaine said.
Although the system was designed in Manitoba and is meant to address the specific needs and concerns of Manitoba communities, it will create an important "model to foster the development of similar systems across Canada," the report says.
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