WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
On Tuesday, the House of Commons unanimously approved a motion declaring the crisis of missing and murdered women, girls and indigenous peoples a national emergency.
The motion was introduced by Leah Gazan, an NDP critic for women and gender equality, and came just before Red Dress Day on May 5.
The adopted motion included a call to provide immediate and substantial investment in a red-dress alert system to help notify the public when a two-spirited woman, girl, or indigenous person goes missing.
At a press conference on the morning of the motion, Gazan was flanked by several First Nations, Métis and Inuit advocates and grassroots activists. She emphasized during the press conference that the structures are ready to create the alert system immediately.
Gazan has met with Public Security Minister Bill Blair to discuss a way forward, he said. National Observer of Canada. But his patience is running out.
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“They just need to sit at the table and then act,” Gazan said. “I’m done meeting for the sake of meeting.”
It goes beyond “feel-good stuff” — action needs to happen, he added.
Currently, the government has earmarked $2.5 million over five years to implement the National Action Plan for two spirits and missing and murdered indigenous women, but Gazan says action is needed now, pointing to the recent discovery of the remains of a one-year-old girl from the Samson Cree Nation and the death of a Sandy Bay First Nation woman over the weekend.
In a press conference on Tuesday, NDP MP Leah Gazan stressed that structures are in place to create a red dress alert system immediately. #MMIWG2S #Reconciliation #ReconciliationACTION #RedDressDay
But this year’s federal budget notably recovered $150 million of funding for women’s shelters, a move that “really, really worries” Carol McBride, president of the Indigenous Women’s Association of Canada.
“I hope this resolution means that [the federal government] they will look for that financing that they are planning to recover ”.
In question, the liberals pointed to the end of the pandemic as a reason to cut housing funds, Gazan said.
“The pandemic is over, but not the pandemic of violence… The pandemic of violence continues,” Gazan said.
At the press conference, Ellen Gabriel, a Kanehsatà:ke activist and filmmaker, squarely blamed politicians and bureaucrats for inaction.
“It becomes a matter of economics. It goes to the Treasury Board, instead of seeking to educate their leaders, their politicians, about what human rights really mean,” Gabriel said.
“Each of us knows what it is to breathe, everyone knows what it means to lose a loved one. Why can’t politicians and bureaucrats understand that Indigenous Peoples are human beings too?
Matteo Cimellaro / National Observer of Canada / Local Journalism Initiative