Committee report on potential landfill search expected in January

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This article was published 28/12/2023 (661 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The committee tasked with studying the feasibility of searching a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women is planning to release a report on its findings in early January.

In December 2022, city police announced they had charged Jeremy Anthony Micheal Skibicki with three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, and a still-unidentified Indigenous woman, temporarily given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by elders.

Skibicki had initially been arrested in May 2022, and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, 24.

Police said they beleive the remains of Myran and Harris had been deposited at privately owned Prairie Green Landfill, just north of the city — sparking victims’ families and advocates to call on the provincial and federal governments to commit to a search of the site.

Last week, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said such a search could be carried out in winter months but expected efforts could be underway by summer 2024, after looking at the logistics of how to carry it out “in a compassionate way and also in a way that respects safety for people involved.”

After an initial feasibility study in July that said a search could take one to three years, at a cost of $84 million to $184 million, a committee led by forensic researchers, Indigenous leadership and family representatives (and overseen by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs) was later given 90 days to report back on preparatory work and risk mitigation details.

Committee member and former Long Plain First Nation chief Kyra Wilson said that report is set to be released in early January — with Jan. 12 as the 90-day cut-off date.

“Right now, we do have a team of experts, professionals, that are coming together to ensure that they have correct information, they have all of the information available for the feds when they do look at this report,” Wilson said Thursday.

“This is not something that is taken lightly. This is obviously a very serious matter that everyone is watching.”

Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced $740,000 in funding to Long Plain (where Harris and Myran were both from) to begin preparation on the report the day after the Manitoba NDP won a majority provincial government Oct. 3.

Wilson said Ottawa will receive the report and, at this point, she feels hopeful the next steps will come swiftly.

“I think that both levels of government are on the same page… I don’t see any other barriers at this point, I just think that it’s a matter of what everyone is able to contribute to the landfill search.”

Myran’s grandmother, Donna Bartlett, is waiting and watching closely as meetings with the committee (which she is a part of) continued the past three months.

“For me, last year would have been better (to start a search) but this summer is great,” Bartlett said, adding she believes her granddaughter will be found in the new year.

“Right now, we don’t have a body. And until I find that body, I’m looking for her all the time, every time I drive downtown, down the North End, anywhere. I’m always looking.”

Skibicki’s trial is scheduled to begin in April. He pleaded not guilty on all counts on the first day of his pre-trial hearing in November.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca