Legacy-defining moment marked by cruelty

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2023 (816 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there’s one thing Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson should have learned from predecessor Brian Pallister, it is to get Indigenous issues right.

When she took over leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservatives in late 2021, there was a shift when it came to working with Indigenous communities.

She didn’t always deliver good news — like the refusal to make Truth and Reconciliation Day (Sept. 30) a stat holiday — but issues impacting reconciliation did receive more attention on her watch.

Stefanson even responded when a stereotypical piece of art in the premier’s office (which had been there for decades) was identified, ordering a “review” to ensure all Indigenous-themed art in ministerial offices was made by Indigenous artists.

Now, however, Stefanson’s legacy will be primarily defined by her treatment of Indigenous people, which, in many ways, exceeds the former premier in cruelty.

Around noon Friday, the City of Winnipeg was granted a court injunction to remove a blockade from an access road to the south Brady Road landfill. Its protectors are seeking government support in a proposed search of privately owned Prairie Green Landfill, north of the city, for the remains of Indigenous women Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

To be clear, the city inherited this problem from Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth, who originally said a search and recovery “isn’t feasible” — but no one remembers this.

What people now remember is Stefanson, who joined with First Nations leaders and families of women believed to have been slain by a serial killer (police have charged a suspect with four counts of first-degree murder) to demand a “feasibility study” be performed to see if a search was possible.

When the potential cost came in (up to $184 million and three years), a door of opportunity to change the way Indigenous women are treated in this country opened. An expensive and emotional door, yes, but a door.

Then, Stefanson announced the province would not support a search of the site due to “health and safety concerns.”

It was quickly pointed out police in other Canadian cities don’t have these same concerns.

Police spent months in 2021 looking for the remains of Toronto man Nathaniel Brettell, 57, at Green Lane Landfill outside London, Ont. The effort united the community, involving hundreds of officers and multiple units. Many even volunteered to search on their days off.

“The Toronto police will not stop in their pursuit of evidence and the recovery of people for their family,” Det.-Sgt. Keri Fernandes said at the time.

When Brettell’s body was found, it was a front-page story. His sister said: “It gives me peace… I’m thankful that my brother’s remains have been found because it gives me closure.”

Brettell, of course, wasn’t an Indigenous woman though.

Stefanson’s decision is turning into political suicide.

It shows the Tory government — which has spent nearly all its time in office (in non-election years, anyways) closing emergency rooms, slashing budgets for non-profit agencies and promoting austerity — doesn’t want to pay for a search.

Manitoba’s Conservative government, simply put, doesn’t think searching for the remains of Indigenous women is “feasible.”

The election ads in Winnipeg — where every single person lives beside, works with or is married to an Indigenous person — write themselves. NDP candidates must think it’s their birthday.

I might advise Stefanson to not to send Conservative candidates into most of the First Nations in Manitoba, either (imagine those conversations).

With the Brady Road blockade coming down and spectre of arrests on the horizon (protectors have promised they will not leave), Stefanson has put Winnipeg police and the City of Winnipeg in the position of doing the dirty work at the landfill.

But she wears the stink of cruelty.

The most important thing to say out of this mess is none of this had to be this way.

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Imagine if Stefanson had simply announced the province was going to attempt a search — just try. She could have even said the province would pick up a portion of the bill, but needed Ottawa to step up for the rest.

That move would have put tremendous pressure on Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller.

Instead, Miller scored political points on Stefanson, saying the sitiation was dealt with in a “heartless way” in front of chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations meetings in Halifax.

Now, instead of multiple forces uniting to search a landfill, forces are uniting against Stefanson.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Niigaan Sinclair
Columnist

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press.

   Read full biography