City considers legal action after protesters defy order to clear landfill blockade By: Chris Kitching and Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 1:32 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 10, 2023 Last Modified: 4:47 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 10, 2023 Updates

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The City of Winnipeg could seek legal action to restore public access to the Brady Road landfill as soon as Tuesday, after protesters defied a municipal order to clear a blockade by noon Monday.

Protesters held their ground while demanding governments support searches of Winnipeg-area landfills for the remains of missing or slain Indigenous women and girls, after suspected serial killings in 2022.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Melissa Robinson said as the city-imposed deadline passed.

The remains of her cousin Morgan Harris are believed to be in the Prairie Green Landfill just north of Winnipeg,

On July 7, City of Winnipeg chief administrative officer Michael Jack issued an order to vacate to the protesters and allow full access to city-run Brady Road by 12 p.m. Monday.

As the blockade continued, Jack told reporters the city could seek a court-ordered injunction that would be enforced by police.

Robinson and others warned there could be additional demonstrations to put pressure on governments, no matter what the municipal government decides to do.

“(An injunction) doesn’t mean we’re not going to go elsewhere. This is just the beginning until they decide that they need to do the right thing,” she said.

“You can go through the legal courts, but how bad is government of Canada and this city going to look when they start arresting and hurting our own people,” said Harris’s daughter, Cambria Harris. “We’re fighting for a cause. We’re fighting to get these women home, and why are you so against that?”

“We’re fighting for a cause. We’re fighting to get these women home, and why are you so against that?”–Cambria Harris

Winnipeg police were monitoring the situation, said spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon.

“We continue to engage with involved parties to support peaceful resolutions,” she wrote in an email.

Protesters blocked the main road to the Brady Road landfill on July 6, after Premier Heather Stefanson informed the families of Harris and Marcedes Myran that her government doesn’t support a search of privately owned Prairie Green.

Stefanson insisted the province will not put the health and safety of searchers at risk when there is no guarantee of finding remains of the women, who were from Long Plain First Nation.

The families and an Indigenous-led committee, which studied the feasibility of searching Prairie Green, said the study identified ways to mitigate risks.

Jack said the group had made its point to the premier and it’s time to restore access to Brady Road, where the household waste of about 750,000 Winnipeggers is dumped.

To reach a solution, he said the protesters would not necessarily need to leave the site, just clear access points to allow it to operate.

The families are waiting on the federal government to decide whether it will provide funding for a search.

The city has said it doesn’t have the financial resources for a search of any landfill.

Robinson said the potential cost and timeline identified in the feasibility report — up to three years and up to $184 million — should not prevent a search.

“I’m not going to have my nieces go sit at a landfill to visit their mom for the rest of eternity. It’s wrong,” she said.

“I’m not going to have my nieces go sit at a landfill to visit their mom for the rest of eternity. It’s wrong.”–Melissa Robinson

As Monday’s deadline passed, about 60 people had gathered at the blockade, where a new road obstruction was set up closer to Waverley Street.

Earlier, women formed a circle around a painting of a red dress on the road as part of a ceremony involving song and prayer.

Robinson said protesters declined the city’s request to meet before noon to discuss negotiations.

“We have sat at many tables, we have jumped through many hoops, we have obeyed all the laws, and we’re just done,” she said. “We’re not doing anything for them if they’re not going to do anything for us. They know our stance — we want our landfills searched and we want our women brought home.”

At about the same time at city hall, Jack said the city remains hopeful discussions will lead to a solution.

He said the blockade violates city bylaws and provincial laws, and puts the city at risk of breaching provincial environmental licence requirements.

Jack said environmental damage is a key risk at the landfill because staff need to regularly service the site to prevent pollution.

The city has used an alternative route to keep depositing trash at Brady Road.

Jack said that access is not reliable and the landfill was forced to shut down for one day after a rainstorm made it unusable.

Cambria Harris considered the garbage trucks passing by on Waverley a “f—- you” to the families.

Police believe four Indigenous women — Harris, Myran, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified victim temporarily named Buffalo Woman by elders — were slain by an alleged serial killer in 2022.

Remains belonging to Contois were found in a North Kildonan garbage bin and later in a section of Brady Road landfill that was searched by police.

Police believe Harris and Myran’s remains were deposited at Prairie Green, but decided against a search due, in part, to the volume of waste dumped over the 34 days before investigators learned the woman’s remains were likely there.

After no government took the lead, Indigenous leaders and the families formed a committee and launched a study — funded by the federal government — which determined a search would be feasible.

Members of Harris’s family and supporters set up a camp outside Brady Road in December, after police announced the deaths of Harris, Myran and Buffalo Woman, whose remains are missing.

Discussions helped bring an end to an earlier blockade, which cost city taxpayers $1.5 million since garbage had to be dumped at private landfills.

On Sunday, a pickup truck driver dumped soil and wood chips on the red dress mural.

“It is 2023, and we’re still dealing with that racism and that hatred, and the oppression with all the levels of government right now,” said Long Plain Chief Kyra Wilson. “This is a prime example of the things we’re still having to fight for when it comes to our people, when it comes to our women.”

“This is a prime example of the things we’re still having to fight for when it comes to our people.”–Long Plain Chief Kyra Wilson

Jack also condemned those actions.

“It’s very unfortunate. We are taking steps to do our best to determine who did that and try to bring some consequences there,” he said. “That didn’t help matters, it didn’t help the dynamic of what’s going on out there. (It’s) absolutely unacceptable.”

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

As a general assignment reporter, Chris covers a little bit of everything for the Free Press.

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves to tell the stories of this city, especially when politics is involved. Joyanne became the city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.

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