Another hair-brained scheme to solicit aboriginal votes.

Heaven forbid that I would ever stand in the way of a good idea, but is it a good idea or a vote buying scheme?

Quoting Bachrach, “The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is one that for decades has deeply affected families throughout the Northwest,” said Bachrach. “Tragically, that continues to this day. The Red Dress Alert is a tangible, concrete step that will improve the chance that when loved ones go missing, they are found.”

There is no tangible evidence that the rule that makes the Amber Alert work, is applicable to local aboriginal women. These women are not travelling as a captured child in cars to be whisked away to distant places. As these women have not been found, we cannot say they have been murdered, however those that were murdered would not be spotted on the road by drivers, and you don’t even have a suspect car or plate number. Its a ludicrous idea, in hopes of winning aboriginal votes.

Imagine yourself in the shoes of a young indigenous woman who was having emotional issues with someone, and decided to hide at a friends house for a day or two, then find that your photo is being flashed all over the country, and knowing you have to explain this to all your classmates, and everyone who saw your face. I don’t know about you, but that shame might be a whole lot more dangerous than leaving it the way it is today, letting family and friends do it on social media. Or if it more serious, leave it to the RCMP and local news outlets. If the goal is harm reduction, then why would you hurt the majority of victims who only disappear for a short while?

Amber Alert works because they most often have a suspect and his/her photo, they have a picture of the suspect car and they have a licence number, none of this is applicable to aboriginal women, its a crazy notion at very best.

As they say the devil is in the details, read the article, it only mentions aboriginal women and girls, it also fails to mention that in almost every instance where a body was located, it was in almost every instance a murder, it was local, and by someone they knew. I agree we need to do something, the problem is the sea-saw flip flop between having RCMP stay out of aboriginal business, and the demand they need to do more.

Other than for a publicity stunt, why would it help having signs in Quebec and Ontario flashing messages about a person missing in Northern British Columbia?

Bachrach said the new alert would work like the Amber Alert system by sending out mass notifications through the cell network, hoping to track down missing Indigenous women before it is too late.

No mention by Bachrach about missing indigenous men (red dress won’t help) and its not only indigenous people going missing, Bachrach does not even mention the sheer number of local people who have gone missing and are not indigenous or are not female, so even more it looks like a vote buying stunt.  Imagine a country asking the question, what happened to these missing persons? look at the RCMP Missing Persons list! This is just for British Columbia alone.

There are over 100 missing persons in BC alone, and Bachrach wants to have an alert exclusive to female aboriginals.

In almost every case where a missing person was found, it also came with a message that sounded more like “we found them so mind your own business” but they word it more politically correct, they have police ask the public to respect their privacy in this matter.

Yes we have a serious problem, but fixing it will require a lot more cooperation between police and aboriginal communities. It was not so long ago when social media was rumbling about sexual abuse in the road blocks on the Morice River Road, and if memory serves me right the leaders refused to give the name of the accused to police, because the refused to recognize them as a legitimate authority. You cannot have it both ways, you either respect the authority of goverment, or your on your own, police it from within.

Yes there is a major problem, its not going to be solved with a politically motivated Red Dress Alert, the solution is simple, do not alienate the RCMP, work with them, but then again have you ever seen Bachrach bringing people together for the benefit of all, vs the benefits to a few?