20 years after the first MMIWG report, a new generation dons red dresses – APTN News
May 05, 2025
Twenty years after Amnesty International released its first report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), a delegation from the international human rights organization gathered on Parliament Hill for Red Dress Day to attend a vigil held by longtime Algonquin activist Bridget Tolley, and her family.
The gathering took place near West Block, not far from the site of numerous vigils held over the years.
The ceremony featured a youth drum group from Kitigan Zibi—boys aged 10 to 12. Bridget’s nephew, Owen Tolley, 11, and her granddaughter Ava, 10, delivered a speech honouring Gladys Tolley, Bridget’s mother, who was killed on Oct. 5, 2001, when a Québec provincial police cruiser struck her on a dark highway that runs through the reserve.
