Bear Clan partners with Crime Stoppers and Aboriginal Alert to bring more missing Manitobans home

Bear Clan Patrol is teaming up with Aboriginal Alert and Winnipeg Crime Stoppers in hopes of finding more missing people, an initiative they say has been in the works for four years.

"It feels wonderful. .. It's been a long time coming," says Angela Klassen, the coordinator for Bear Clan's West Broadway patrol and the group's missing persons liaison.

Klassen says last year Winnipeg saw 4,430 thousand missing persons cases, out of which Bear Clan worked with the families of 321 missing people.

"We were able to successfully help locate 228, giving us a 71 per cent success rate," Klassen told the media Tuesday. She hopes the partnership will increase the number of people they can locate.

Crime Stoppers chair Robert MacKenzie has no doubt it will help bring Manitobans back home. The problem, he says, is hesitation in the community to come forward with information that could help find someone.

"The thought is that they don't come forward out of a sense of loyalty, but what they don't realize is that they're doing more harm and damage by being loyal and keeping those secrets to those individuals."

The partnership gives people with information about a missing persons case the option of contacting any of the three organizations anonymously.

"The goal is to provide that alternative, that anonymity," MacKenzie said.

The information is then passed on to the Winnipeg Police Service Missing Persons Unit.

Bear Clan announced Tuesday, the community-based organization would be working with Aboriginal Alert and Winnipeg Crime Stoppers in hopes of finding more missing people. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)

The initiative also includes Aboriginal Alert, an online network that posts missing Indigenous people across Canada. According to their most recent data, Winnipeg leads the country in the number of missing Indigenous people.

"Winnipeg is facing an ongoing crisis," says Martel, who believes the combination of resources from all three organizations could help tackle a growing problem and help in missing persons investigations.

Martel says oftentimes people are not reported missing, especially in urban areas like Winnipeg. Collaborating with a community-based group like Bear Clan provides the necessary outreach to start a search.

MacKenzie says Crime Stoppers will also be giving a cash reward to those that come forward with information that helps solve a missing persons case.

"The goal is to bring Manitobans home before they become victimized or even worse, victims themselves."