Alberta's emergency alert system was built for abductions. It wasn't built for a non-verbal autistic child who wanders off with no one able to explain where they went. We're asking the province to close that gap with an Indigo Alert.
This campaign started with Jennifer Ball, a Calgary mother of a non-verbal autistic child. Her question is simple: what happens when a vulnerable child goes missing, but there's no evidence anyone took them?
"It is essential to recognize that their inability to communicate and understand danger puts them at a heightened risk." — Jennifer Ball, Calgary
Right now, Canada's Amber Alert exists for one specific scenario: abduction. It's a vital tool, and it works well for what it's designed to do. But children with autism, developmental disabilities, or medical conditions that make them non-verbal or unable to recognize danger can go missing in a completely different way — no suspect, no abduction, just a child alone near a road, a river, or in freezing weather. Under the current criteria, that situation may not trigger any province-wide alert at all.
If there's no sign a child was taken, dispatch of a mass public alert isn't guaranteed — even if the child is non-verbal, medically fragile, or at serious risk of harm.
A new alert tier triggered by a child's vulnerability — developmental, medical, or communication-based — regardless of whether abduction is suspected.
Closing this gap doesn't mean replacing the Amber Alert. It means giving law enforcement a second, faster tool for a different kind of emergency — one that current criteria weren't designed to catch.
The petition asks Canadian and Alberta authorities to formally recognize this gap and create a new alert category for medically or developmentally vulnerable missing children. It takes under a minute to sign.
Every signature adds weight when this reaches an MLA's desk. Share it with your own network after signing — reach matters as much as numbers here.
Join over 10,000 signers — every signature counts.
Signatures show support. A direct message from a constituent to their own MLA is what usually gets read first. Find your representative, then send a short, personal note.
Search by constituency or your MLA's name below, or use the official address-based lookup for guaranteed accuracy.
A template is generated for you. Add your own experience in a sentence or two — personal notes carry more weight than form letters.
Copy the text into your email client, or use the button to open a pre-filled message with your MLA on To: and the Premier's office on Cc:.
MLA office emails are tied to the constituency, not the individual member, and are cross-referenced against the Legislative Assembly's own records rather than guessed from a formula. One constituency (Calgary-Bhullar-McCall, renamed since our reference data was published) is flagged "unverified" — please confirm it on the profile page before sending. If "Open in email app" doesn't do anything, your browser may not have a desktop mail client configured; use "Copy email text" and paste it into Gmail, Outlook, or whichever you use instead.