Mr. Speaker, May 5 marked National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, also known as Red Dress Day.
Alarmingly, despite comprising only 4.3% of the population, indigenous women are four times more likely than non-indigenous women to be the victims of violence, making up 16% of all female homicide victims and 11% of missing women. Since last year, I have been working with my friend, the member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre, to implement a red dress alert system to rapidly notify the public when an indigenous woman, girl or two-spirit person goes missing. I have been honoured to take part in the consultations that have been indigenous-led and informed.
I am also thrilled with the rapid action our government has taken on this, in particular, the former and current Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, leading to the announcement last week, in partnership with the Province of Manitoba, to implement a regional red dress alert pilot program.