(OTTAWA) The House of Commons on Tuesday unanimously supported a motion to declare the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a “pan-Canadian emergency” – and to fund a new system that would alert the public in case of disappearance.

NDP MP Leah Gazan of Winnipeg introduced the motion to MPs on Tuesday afternoon.

She had previously led efforts to have the House recognize the residential school system as “genocide” – something the Commons did last fall.

Speaking after Tuesday’s vote, Ms Gazan said it was good for MPs to recognize a “truth” in the country, but it was another thing to act on it.

She and other activists therefore pushed for the establishment of a public alert system that would send a notification by phone as soon as an Indigenous woman was reported missing.

Ms. Gazan said she envisions the system working a bit like the Amber Alert, the emergency notification that goes off when a child is missing and there is concern for their safety.