Advocates for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls have long asked for a public alert system to ensure more of them are found sooner and Ottawa has begun the consultation process, months after a motion by Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan was backed by Parliament.
“We know that every minute we wait, someone goes murdered or missing and no one is looking for them. This is an emergency. We cannot get marred in politics and game-playing. Lives are on the line, this needs to be put in place as soon as possible.” she said.
Gazan says she hopes it can be similar to the Amber Alert system and will be ready to roll out early next year.
Manitoba Housing Minister Bernadette Smith — whose own sister went missing in 2008 — says it’s critical for information to get out quickly, to help people mobilize.
“When my sister was missing, nobody knew she was missing for 10 days. And at that point, people’s memories — we forget. So the quicker, the faster the response, the better.”
Advocates say consultation with families of missing and murdered women will be crucial in determining how the system works.
Smith wants to see the alerts broadcast over multiple channels especially in remote areas, where access to the internet or phone service is less reliable.
“Our rural communities, if they’ve gone missing in those areas, keeping that in mind, and how do we get that information out from those communities, because not everybody has access to that.”
Carol McBride, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, says she hopes the system will involve more communication from police about the state of investigations.
She says input from families could help determine where to allocate police and community support resources.
“We can learn by how they lost their loved ones. It will definitely raise some red flags in a lot of areas that will direct us in the right way.”
Once the system is in place, McBride wants to see it grow further to support alerts for missing men and boys as well.
— with files from Global’s Katherine Dornian