When most people hear their phones blast out sirens for the latest Amber Alert, reactions are often mixed. Some people glance at the notification before tossing their phone aside. Others mute their device with no questions asked.
But this sense of apathy only distracts people from the actual problem at hand: children being kidnapped, and police needing assistance to make sure the child is safe.
It’s even more concerning that the future of the public alert system is now uncertain.
An access to information request retrieved by Canada’s National Observer discovered that the funding agreement for the National Public Alerting System, or Alert Ready, was set to expire on Aug. 31, 2026.
There are currently no plans to extend the contract, something that Public Safety Canada is concerned about. This was detailed in a memo to the minister of emergency management.
“Urgent action is required to sustain Canada’s life-saving public alerting capability,” it said.
Alert Ready doesn’t exist for only Amber Alerts. It also acts to send alerts out for extreme weather, air quality, wildfires, and other threats. Yet, this is not how much of the population views the system. Instead, it’s treated as a nuisance to one’s everyday routine.
This universal apathy only hides the actual news on hand. For instance, two weeks ago, Ontarians around the GTA received an Amber Alert for a 17-month-old baby who was kidnapped by her mother’s ex-partner. The mother, Savannah Kulla, was found shot at the scene after her ex-partner fled.
A press release published by the Niagara Regional Police Service said that the suspect, Anthony Deschepper, fled to Niagara Region before engaging in a standoff with police. They said an “interaction with officers” left Deschepper dead at the scene. The 17-month-old was found at a family member's house.
Yet, that wasn’t what people took away from the incident. Instead, the videos trending on social media were focusing on poking fun at the situation. Many were complaining about the sudden noise disrupting their day-to-day routines.
A video published on TikTok by user @itsmur_ blew up not long after the Amber Alert sounded off. He pretended to look at his phone before throwing it aside dramatically.
These attitudes only detract from the actual problem at hand. For instance, in response to this news, MP Frank Caputo took to social media X to highlight the lack of legislative reprimand when it comes to domestic abuse cases.
"Why are we not passing Bill C-225 forthwith? I wrote this bill to address the pernicious issue of IPV," he said in a post.
Caputo is referencing Bill C-225, a private member's bill he tabled recently in hopes of addressing the root issues in IPV, or Intimate Partner Violence, and strengthening intimate partner laws. It's something we wouldn't even know of, if not for actual proof playing out in the news as to why we need laws like this, something an Amber Alert brought to light, yet was dismissed as annoying.
Additionally, the only reason Peel Police were able to find the 17-month-old so fast was because of the Amber Alert.
Ontario Provincial Police said in a press release that 90 per cent of Amber Alerts have resulted in the safe recovery of the missing child. For instance, an Amber Alert was issued for an eight-month-old last August, and was found 20 minutes later thanks to the alert.
So next time you hear your phone blaring its familiar siren, maybe you should pick it up and give the news a read instead of throwing your phone aside.
