Content note: this piece discusses violence against Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people. If you need immediate support, call 911 in an emergency, the MMIWG crisis line at 1-844-413-6649, or Hope for Wellness at 1-855-242-3310.
Our women, girls, and Two-Spirit relatives are not disappearing into a mystery. The National Inquiry was built from the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors, experts, and Knowledge Keepers, and it found that the violence is rooted in persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses. Ottawa’s own Federal Pathway says the Inquiry concluded this violence amounts to a race-based genocide that especially targets women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. That matters because it moves the conversation away from isolated tragedy and toward the structure that keeps producing harm.
That structure is colonialism, not in a museum sense but in a living one. Canada’s own documents acknowledge that the legacy of the Indian Act, residential schools, and other federal laws and policies created and continue to perpetuate marginalization, poverty, food insecurity, illness, suicide, and violence. The same documents recognize that these systems also displaced Indigenous women and gender-diverse people from roles many once held as matriarchs, teachers, Knowledge Keepers, spiritual leaders, and midwives. When Indigenous people say this crisis is about land, family, language, law, and power, that is not symbolism. It is a direct description of what colonial policy has targeted for generations.
This is why the roots of the crisis cannot be separated from everyday survival. Federal policy materials now admit that Indigenous people carry a disproportionate burden of ill health rooted in colonialism, and that anti-Indigenous racism, lack of cultural safety, poverty, housing insecurity, weak social support networks, and unequal access to services all feed the violence. In real life, that looks like women and Two-Spirit people trying to stay safe while moving between couch-surfing, shelters, street economies, child welfare scrutiny, emergency rooms, and unsafe transportation routes. The danger is not only the final act of violence. The danger is the accumulation of conditions that make people easier to isolate, disbelieve, exploit, and lose.
The justice system has never been neutral ground for our people. A House of Commons report says plainly that the Canadian justice system is premised on settler-colonial values and fails to include Indigenous concepts of justice. The federal annual progress report likewise says Calls for Justice 9.1 to 9.5 require policing systems to become culturally competent, accountable, and responsive to the realities of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people. That language appears because governments have had to admit what families and communities have said for a very long time: the system itself has been part of the danger, and trust cannot be rebuilt through public relations alone.
This is not a past-tense crisis. Federal tracking material says Indigenous women are 6.5 times more likely to be victims of homicide than non-Indigenous women. Women and Gender Equality Canada says Indigenous women make up about 5 percent of women in Canada but about 26 percent of women killed by an intimate partner in 2022. The same federal tracking baseline says Indigenous women and girls are 1.4 times more likely to self-report physical or sexual assault than non-Indigenous women and girls, and that childhood violent victimization is higher for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women. Statistics Canada reported that the number of Indigenous women killed rose from 50 in 2023 to 71 in 2024. These are not numbers that describe safety. They describe an ongoing emergency.
The crisis also lives where exploitation, homelessness, and toxic drug harm intersect. The AFN’s 2025 progress report focused on the urgent and growing human trafficking crisis affecting First Nations women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, describing it as happening in communities, along highways, near development projects, and across the border. Public Safety Canada says Indigenous women and girls continue to be disproportionately targeted by sex traffickers. Statistics Canada reports that 85 percent of police-reported human trafficking incidents from 2014 to 2024 were in large urban centres, and that Montreal was one of five CMAs accounting for nearly half of those incidents. In Quebec, Iskweu’s own focus areas include housing and shelter access, addiction medicine and harm reduction, mental health, domestic violence, and support for those involved in sex work, which tells the truth clearly: these harms travel together.
There is action underway, and it matters to name it honestly. The 2021 National Action Plan and the Federal Pathway were supposed to move governments beyond mourning statements toward concrete change, including Indigenous-led solutions, cultural safety and humility, trauma-informed approaches, and a focus on dignity. Federal reporting also points to work on child and family wellbeing reform, shelters and second-stage housing, and anti-racism initiatives in health and policing. APTN reported that, by the last progress report, Ottawa said it had funded more than 90 Indigenous women’s and 2SLGBTQI+ groups working to prevent or respond to violence, along with 52 community safety projects and 32 healing programs. Another federal program says 33 Indigenous-led projects have been funded since 2021 to support the wellbeing of families and survivors.
But naming activity is not the same as naming justice. APTN reported in February 2026 that, according to the federal tracker, only two Calls for Justice had been completed as of June 2025, while 138 were listed as actioned and 82 remained pending. That gap matters because it shows the difference between public language and lived safety. Families and survivors keep saying the same thing in public because they have had to: this crisis does not pause when governments get distracted, and it does not become less urgent because officials prefer the language of progress over the reality of unfinished work.
Some of the most meaningful work is still happening where families and grassroots groups refused to stop. In 2024, Canada and Manitoba announced a partnership to co-develop a Red Dress Alert pilot with Indigenous partners, recognizing that the first hours after someone goes missing are critical. The Indigenous-led body now steering that work, Giganawenimaanaanig, says the alert system must be Indigenous-led, trauma-informed, culturally safe, adequately resourced, supportive of families for as long as the case lasts, and implemented immediately. Memorial marches continue for the same reason. As IndigiNews reported from Winnipeg this year, people gathered not only in grief but in a desire for change. That combination of ceremony, public memory, and organized pressure is not secondary to justice. It is often what keeps the demand for justice alive.
In Quebec, one of the clearest examples of Indigenous-led response is the Iskweu Project of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. The project exists because families and loved ones said there was an immediate need for help when an Indigenous woman, girl, trans, or Two-Spirit person went missing. Iskweu says it works to reduce barriers and secure an adequate response from institutions that have historically discriminated against Indigenous peoples. Federal reporting describes Iskweu as a lifeline that can help with practical needs such as hotels, travel costs, and access to psychologists or Elders in a crisis. The Native Friendship Centre of Montreal also lists emotional and cultural support for people affected by the MMIWGT2S crisis. These are not symbolic services. They are part of how our people keep each other alive when institutions fall short.
For community members, the most practical truth is this: if someone is missing or in immediate danger, act right away. RCMP guidance says there is no waiting period in Canada, anyone can report someone missing, and any police service can take the report. It also recommends gathering what you know early: a recent photo, last known location and time, names of people or places connected to the person, and anything from phones or social media that may help. In Quebec, families can also call the Québec Family Information Liaison Unit for help navigating police, coroners, child protection, and other government systems. In Montreal, Iskweu has a non-urgent anonymous tip line and direct support, while the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal provides 24/7 support for Indigenous women and children. If the crisis includes violence, call SOS violence conjugale; if it involves trafficking, call the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline; if grief, panic, or emotional distress is taking over, the MMIWG crisis line, Hope for Wellness, and 9-8-8 are all available.
For Native Harm Reduction Montreal, the work is not to turn this crisis into content. It is to tell the truth plainly, protect dignity, and make sure knowledge leads to survival. Missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people are not a sidebar to the overdose crisis, homelessness, child welfare, trafficking, or policing. They are at the centre of how colonial violence moves through our communities. So the response cannot be pity, and it cannot be silence. It has to be Indigenous-led safety, practical support, harm reduction, housing, culture, ceremony, and the refusal to let another family search alone. Our people are not case files. They are relatives, and keeping them alive and connected is the point.
Core support and reporting resources
