Madam Speaker, I am here today because, earlier this week, I asked a question on the realities of murdered and missing indigenous women across Canada. What I really want to point out is that within communities across this country there are organizations fundraising to help find missing indigenous women and girls across Canada, and how unacceptable that is.
I spoke about the Lil' Red Dress Project, which was created in 2018 when Jeannine Lindsay and Carla Voyageur came together around a kitchen table to discuss what they could do to raise awareness and how they could do something more for the families who had lost or were missing one of their beloved female loved ones.
These amazing women came together, and they have many volunteers, including Carla's own children, who help bead small red dresses for earrings and pins. All the money and proceeds they get from those beautiful pieces of art go into putting up billboards across communities that identify indigenous women who are missing.
What is most ironic about this is that they got the idea from a non-indigenous woman's family, which collected funds to put up a sign to identify that she was missing. This was an amazing thing.
However, we understand that we have a terrible situation in this country, where missing and murdered indigenous women are lost. They are falling through the cracks, and now the only way these folks can actually get action is to fundraise to get these signs up.
Too many families across Canada are missing their precious loved ones. I think all of us in this House have to take responsibility for understanding that there are families, indigenous families, across this country who every day do not know where that beautiful soul is. They are afraid when their girl children, their wives and their sisters go out into the world, because they do not know if they may become one of these sad stories.
I think of the fact that in 2016, local families in the Comox Valley created an annual Women's Memorial March in memory of Selina Wallace, who went missing February 7, 1971. Her sister Verna has been a strong advocate for the inquiry. She even appeared at the inquiry to share her story about losing her sister and how, at that time, the RCMP did very little to help the family find her. She was able to participate in the inquiry, but she is still waiting to see action.
That is why I have brought this serious issue forward. It is because so many families across this country want to see action now. They want to see preventative measures so that this does not happen again, when again and again, what we see are indigenous women and girls murdered or missing, and not found.
I also think it is important to recognize that all of these communities are coming together across Canada to get these voices heard. The red dress campaign continues to be a fight, but we want to see action, and we want to see the inquiry action items actually put into place.
I am hoping to hear from the government today that there will finally be action.