‘We’re in a crisis’: Red Dress Day honored as leaders say more work needs to be done

The head of the Canadian Indigenous Women’s Association said it was clear there was an ongoing emergency nearly four years after the final report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls was released.

We are in a crisis, says Carol McBride.

The red dresses will be showcased across the country on Friday to commemorate National Awareness Day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Souls. It is known as Red Dress Day and the empty clothes serve as a symbol of the lives that have been lost.

Every year there are more events, demonstrations and art shows. Despite increased awareness and extensive national investigations, McBride said the situation facing Indigenous girls and women had not changed substantially.

I am a mother. I am a sister. I’m an aunt, she said. And I just imagine some of our families and our women are suffering right now.

The final report of the investigation was released in 2019 and included massive calls for change. It found that Indigenous women and girls were 12 times more likely to have been killed or disappeared than any other group in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accepted the findings of the inquiry, which said the crisis amounted to genocide.

Sixty-three percent of Indigenous women experience violence and nearly half experience sexual violence, Statistics Canada said in a report last year.

Winnipeg has been called ground zero.

At least 28 indigenous women in Manitoba have died as a result of violence since May 2020, said Sandra DeLaronde, team lead for the MMIWG2S+ Manitoba implementation team. The majority are in Winnipeg.

A group hung 101 red gowns along a chain-link fence outside a dump in the capital Manitoba during the winter. Winnipeg police say the bodies of four Indigenous women were dumped in a dump last year.

The remains of the three women have not been found. A man has been charged with first-degree murder in the murders of the four women.

The remains of another Indigenous woman were also found in a dump earlier this year. Police said his death was not a homicide.

“When I think about it, I cry,” said DeLaronde. “I have to focus on the thousands of women and girls who are still here and how we can keep them safe.”

DeLaronde says it’s important to recognize that indigenous peoples are sacred, and they shouldn’t just be honored while they’re away.

The House of Commons unanimously endorsed Tuesday’s motion declaring the death and disappearance of Indigenous women and girls a state of emergency across Canada. It also calls for funding a new system to alert the public when someone goes missing.

The truth is the truth, said Leah Gazan, the Winnipeg member of Parliament who filed the motion. Admitting the truth is one thing. It’s another thing to act on it.

The Canadian Indigenous Women’s Association has criticized the federal government for not doing more or acting quickly enough. McBride said Tuesday’s motion was an important step, but more needs to be done.

Most of the money announced to fulfill the 231 inquiry’s summons for justice is stuck in government bureaucracy, DeLaronde said, and has not made it to the front lines and the Indigenous women and families who need it.

DeLaronde added that all Canadians should use Red Dress Day to reflect on what they can do to create change.

“The Red Dress is a movement that people can support, because it is an opportunity to change the fabric of this country.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.