OTTAWA — Bridget Tolley said the thought of coming to Parliament Hill on Tuesday morning was overwhelming.
“I cried this morning, because I didn’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here, but I have to be. Not only for my mother, but for all our sisters,” she said.
Tolley is the founder of Families of Sisters in Spirit, a group that’s been working to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Her mother, Gladys Tolley, was killed in 2001 when she was hit by a Quebec provincial police police vehicle while crossing a highway in her home community of Kitigan Zibi.
The family finally got an apology from police and the Quebec government in 2022 for the way the investigation was handled.
On Tuesday, Tolley’s 16-year-old nephew, Kayden, spoke about the great-grandmother he never got to know.
“I carry her strength, her story, and we carry the responsibility to remember,” he said.
He called for those in attendance to “speak, to learn and to stand up for what is right.”
The Tolleys were among a few dozen people wearing bright red shirts and dresses under a grey sky on Parliament Hill, gathered for a vigil to mark Red Dress Day in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Kitigan Zibi Chief Jean Guy Whiteduck, whose community was shocked by a murder-suicide in February in which police say a man killed his two children and took his own life, called for better violence prevention efforts.
“I’m of the opinion that we all have a role to play — as individuals, as leaders, as community leaders, government leaders — to stamp out the violence in our society and to ensure justice is rendered,” he said.
This year marks seven years since the launch of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and five years since the release of the national action plan and its 231 calls for justice.
The inquiry found that Indigenous women are 12 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to go missing or be murdered.
“We fought hard to get an inquiry. We wanted the families’ stories told,” said Melanie Omeniho, president of the national Métis group Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak.
“Where are those stories today? They’re gone. It was like they vanished in air, and that was never what was intended.”
The Chiefs of Ontario said this year’s day of awareness and action is marked by “urgent concern” that critical federal funding is set to lapse “with no notice or confirmation of renewal.”
The group said in a press release that the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is ongoing.
“The decision to let this funding lapse, while this crisis continues, is unacceptable,” said Ontario regional Chief Abram Benedict in a statement.
Advocates including the National Family and Survivors Circle, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak and Giganawenimaanaanig held a press conference last month to call for stable, long-term funding from Ottawa.
The groups said piecemeal federal funding agreements were hindering their work to support Indigenous women.
A spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty said some groups are still in negotiations with the federal government for ongoing funding, and that decisions to sunset funding have not been finalized.
In a statement on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced some funding, including $2.6 million in funding over three years for the National Family and Survivors Circle to continue its work in implementing the calls to action.
The federal government also said it would allocate $300,000 for a Red Dress Alert pilot program, which is meant to help notify the public when an Indigenous woman, girl or LGBTQ+ person is reported missing. The pilot is being launched in Manitoba and funding is going to Giganawenimaanaanig.
Tolley said she’s frustrated that organizations who get that federal funding don’t always support families like hers.
“We’ve been here 20 years, speaking on behalf of our missing and murdered Indigenous women, and we’re still here 20 years later,” she said.
In that time, she said, “I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, including prime ministers, ministers.”
Carney and Alty, along with Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand and Women and Gender Equality Minister Rechie Valdez, attended a private ceremony on Parliament Hill on Tuesday morning to mark Red Dress Day.
Métis artist Jaime Black inspired the use of red dresses to represent missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls with an exhibit in 2010.
Black displayed more than 100 red dresses around the University of Winnipeg campus to raise awareness of the issue.
Mercedes Cote, the youth representative for the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, said the empty dresses represent “the women and girls who should still be here.”
“For far too long, our voices have been ignored, our stories dismissed and our safety overlooked. That is the truth we must face and it is the truth that calls each of us to action,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2026.
— With files from Alessia Passafiume
Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
