NDP leader Kinew supports potential landfill search

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This article was published 10/07/2023 (837 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew says he supports a search of the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of missing Indigenous women.

“We have to try,” Kinew said Monday at an unrelated news conference.

He called out Premier Heather Stefanson’s refusal last week to support a search for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran at the landfill north of Winnipeg as “dismissive, hurtful” and a mistake.

City police have said Harris, 39, and Myran, 26, were slain last year by an alleged serial killer, and believe their remains were transported to privately-owned Prairie Green by waste trucks.

“What Heather Stefanson did by mistake is she’s ruled out one option — and therefore concluded that doing nothing is the only alternative,” Kinew said, referring to a feasibility study that estimated such a search could take three years, poses potential health and safety risks, and cost up to $184 million.

“I know folks are saying $180 million is too much money, but why can’t we look at other search methods?” Kinew told reporters.

He said Stefanson’s refusal — the premier had cited safety concerns — is hurtful to the families of murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

“I would ask you as Manitobans to think about your mother’s final resting place: a landfill, the dump. I don’t think anyone would want that to be the final resting place for any of our loved ones.”

“I would ask you as Manitobans to think about your mother’s final resting place: a landfill, the dump. I don’t think anyone would want that to be the final resting place for any of our loved ones.”

The Manitoba government’s handling of the situation is a “national disgrace,” Kinew said.

“The province hasn’t done anything to try and find these women. There’s other search methods you could look at — search animals, other approaches to investigating the landfill sites,” including, potentially, the City of Winnipeg-operated Brady Road landfill, the NDP leader said.

“The reality of the situation is this: we know these women are there and what these families have heard is that their loved one has been the victim of one of the worst crimes in the history of the province,” said Kinew.

“Think about the (alleged) serial murderer who targeted these women… simply because of who they are.”

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The Progressive Conservatives — who’ve been promoting a tough-on-crime agenda ahead of the Oct. 3 election — have “done absolutely nothing” about “one of the worst crimes that has ever taken place in this province” under their watch, Kinew said.

“Everybody wants to see a safer Manitoba,” he said. “A safer Manitoba has to include being there for the victims.”

Kinew said an NDP government would let the families know it is taking their concerns to heart and look for options to conduct a search for their loved ones.

“It might begin to repair some of the harm Heather Stefanson’s comments have made… I think it would give confidence to the people of Manitoba that we are going to lead with thoughtfulness, compassion and humanity.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.