Hon. Pierre J. Dalphond: Colleagues, this coming May 5, we’ll be commemorating Red Dress Day, an opportunity for all of us to pay tribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit persons.

According to Statistics Canada, between 2011 and 2021, 21% of all femicide victims were Indigenous, even though Indigenous women and girls made up just 5% of Canada’s female population.

In its recent budget, the government announced $1.3 million to create a regional red dress alert system that would activate as soon as an Indigenous person was reported missing.

Senator Gold, when will this alert system be deployed and operational in Canada?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for that important question. I also want to thank you for advocating for this cause.

I do not have a precise schedule for the launch of the regional red dress alert system. The Government of Canada is listening to its Indigenous partners and collaborating with the provinces and territories to determine what a red dress alert would look like. To that end, the government established a standing federal-provincial-territorial-Indigenous table on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people and prioritized discussions on how to launch a red dress alert. The government is making progress, but we still have a long way to go to ensure that every Indigenous person in Canada can live free from violence.

Senator Dalphond: The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls made numerous recommendations to the government that they referred to as “Calls for Justice”. Can you tell us how many of these Calls for Justice the government has responded to so far, or is this still under review?

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. Certainly the recommendations are being taken into consideration, but I do not have a specific answer to your question. I will discuss this matter with the minister.