Red Dress Day rally in Winnipeg to ensure spirits of MMIWG2S 'still being honoured'

Sue Caribou held up a banner with a picture of her niece that said "Bring Me Home," as she led hundreds of people donned in red during the Red Dress Day rally in Winnipeg on Monday.

The march began at Memorial Park and ended at The Forks to mark Red Dress Day — a day to honour and remember MMIWG2S that has been recognized since 2010.

Caribou said the last year has been an emotional rollercoaster for her family. Her niece, Tanya Nepinak, was last seen in Winnipeg in September 2011 before police believe her body was dumped in a garbage bin and taken to the Brady Road landfill.

Manitoba committed to search that landfill for the remains of Ashlee Shingoose, who was recently identified as one of the four First Nations women murdered by Winnipeg serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. Remains of two other women killed by Skibicki — Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — were found earlier this year at the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.

Caribou has been pushing for the search for Shingoose to also include recovery efforts for her niece. A search for Nepinak's remains at Brady Road landfill was launched in October 2012, but was called off after six days with no evidence found.

"Every night I pray for the Brady landfill, all the landfills, to be searched. None of our loved ones belong in trash," Caribou told the crowd at The Forks. "It breaks my heart. I'm up all night."

Elizabeth McMechen, a social work student, says she went to the Monday rally because she felt that MMIWG2S is an "ongoing crisis that all people should be concerned about."

"Part of the truth is showing up here today and listening, which is what I'm here to do."

Garrison Settee, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, said he was grateful to see so many different people at the rally on Monday, thanking the crowd for standing up against MMIWG2S.

"It's a painful journey, but this will help these families. This will bring healing and hopefully closure to the families," he said.

"We do it for them, to make sure their spirits are still being honoured and their names are not forgotten," Settee said. "We owe it to them."

Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered compared to non-Indigenous women in Canada, according to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine says family members of MMIWG2S in Manitoba will soon be able to access funding to help them search for loved ones.

Five Indigenous-led organizations will distribute $350,000 from the Manitoba MMIWG2S+ healing and empowerment endowment fund to family members in order to help them access "a wide range" of low-barrier and direct support, Fontaine said.

The money comes from the fund, which the province announced exactly a year ago on Red Dress Day. Eligible costs that can be covered by the endowment fund may include search costs, gas, hotel bills, funeral expenses, headstones, food and even tuition, Fontaine said.

"I think it's really important for Manitobans to know and to be proud of the fact that we are the only jurisdiction across Canada that has set up a MMIWG2S+ endowment fund to operate in perpetuity for families and communities," Fontaine said at the news conference.

"No matter what government is in power, this endowment fund will exist for years to come."

The province set up the fund a year ago through an initial $15-million investment, generating $650,000 in just six months, Fontaine said.

The community organizations will be given responsibility for distributing two-thirds of the fund's revenue each year. The province will direct the rest to Indigenous-led events and programming.

MKO, the Southern Chiefs' Organization and Giganawenimaanaanig — the province's MMIWG2S+ implementation committee — will each receive about $90,000, the province said.

The Manitoba Métis Federation's Infinity Women's Secretariat will receive around $40,000, and the Tunngasugit Inuit Resource Centre in Winnipeg will get $25,000.

The endowment fund, managed by the Winnipeg Foundation, is currently near $25 million, Fontaine said. The goal is to eventually double that, which could result in upwards of $2 million in revenue generated each year, she said.