Good morning.
My name is Melanie Omeniho, and I am president of Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak.
I'd like to acknowledge that I'm joining you today from Treaty 6 territory and the home of the motherland of the Métis Nation.
LFMO is the national indigenous women's organization that represents the voice of Métis women from across the Métis nation motherland.
We advocate nationally and internationally for equal treatment, health and well-being of all Métis people, with a focus on the rights, needs and priorities of Métis women, youth, children and 2SLGBTQQIA+ persons.
LFMO envisions a wider alert system that prioritizes first and foremost indigenous women, youth and 2SLGBTQ+ persons who are at risk of going missing, experiencing gender-based violence and femicide. We can do this by centring the living experiences of the most vulnerable in our communities, because there is too much inequity and oppression within the structures that exist. They include indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse persons who are already subject to missing persons reporting and those who are likely to be subject to a red dress alert. This will ensure a more effective and timely response that is respectful of privacy and self-determination and does not further endanger people nor be weaponized against them.
In addition to operating from an indigenous-led initiative and opening space for grassroots leadership grounded in community needs, the alert must include mechanisms wherein persons who may be subject to the alert can speak back or provide feedback about the process, including what has been helpful and what has been harmful. This feedback must also be used to generate improvements to the overall system. LFMO's vision goes beyond a simple alert system and would extend to connect vulnerable people to wraparound care that is rooted in wise practices of indigenous harm reduction and trauma-informed care.
We propose a specific national body such as a red alert response centre distinct from the police, and moving beyond surface level support. The centre could help facilitate search and rescue efforts, provide ongoing support at different stages of missing persons cases, including the long-term missing, and be a direct pathway to services and supports that can increase safety and resilience amongst indigenous women, youth and 2SLGBTQQIA+ persons.
LFMO's target message is that indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse persons deserve safety, protection and equity. Our emphasis would not be on conveying a specific message to the wider public, who are often very anti-indigenous, anti-poor, etc. Instead, we believe that the red dress alert should signal to indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people four key messages:
If you are missing, we will look for you;
When we find you, we will help you;
You will not be abandoned or ignored;
You are loved.
It's important to LFMO that the creation, implementation and evaluation of the red dress alert prioritize the needs and living experiences of indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBT persons above the general public's needs or awareness raising.
The red dress alert must be more than a simple alert system where the case is closed once a person has been located safe or deceased. It must be a tangible way in which we can increase capacity for safety, decrease harms against already hyper surveilled groups and connect those who go missing, or are at risk, to well-funded services and supports.
The overall goal must be for a red dress alert to produce quantifiable material changes in the lives of indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse persons and their families and communities. It must meet the needs and reach those who are already or likely to be impacted by MMIWG.
If a red dress alert response were created, there would also be related contact [Technical difficulty—Editor]