Canadians are being called on to take action after a new report on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls was released earlier in the week.  

A prayer vigil was held Saturday night on Jasper Avenue to honour the lives of Indigenous female victims and their families, and demand action following the national inquiry’s final report.

Gina Degerness’ son, Lucas, went missing June 7, 2007, in Prince George, B.C.

“It’s been 12 years and one day, so I’m here in support of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples. People in general,” she said on Saturday.

“It’s absolutely vital that we keep the public informed on what a tragedy this is for a lot of people.”

The report, released Monday, found Canada’s treatment of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls amounts to genocide.

“We just want to keep the momentum up of what we just accomplished,” organizer Stephanie Harpe said, adding the inquiry’s latest findings had received both positive and negative reaction and she wanted to see those discussions continue.

“It’s really important to us that we build that relationship and that dialogue, and we just come together as Canadians.”

The inquiry’s use of the word genocide has been widely debated, even after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accepted the report’s conclusion.

Speaking at a gender equality conference in Vancouver on Tuesday, Trudeau said the government’s focus would be the families and communities that have been impacted.

“Our focus is on bringing together people to solve this challenge and that is what we will remain focused on.”

Harpe said the purpose of Saturday’s vigil was similar.

“Lives were taken, human rights violated, laws were broken—so we need to be more educated and more supportive and open minded in supporting each other.”

She recommended Canadians read and respond to the report, which made 231 “calls for justice.” The recommendations relate to standardizing response times to reports of missing Indigenous persons, violence against 2SLGBTQQIA people, funding for education and awareness programs, and consistency by Canadian police in reporting cases of missing or killed people.

Ottawa has promised to make an action plan in response to the report, but Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said there would not be a deadline for it to do so.

“We will have an action plan where our partners think it's adequate… we will work with our partners, and we will get to that place where we will have a roadmap for the concrete actions to stop this tragedy,” Bennett said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period.

It is unlikely a plan will be put in place before the fall federal election, as there are less than two weeks left in the current House of Commons session.