Protesters demand premiers’ attention on landfill search issue By: Danielle Da Silva Posted: 7:13 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 10, 2023

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This article was published 10/07/2023 (1154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drums and demands for a search of local landfills for the remains of missing women reverberated Monday at a meeting of Canada’s premiers and Indigenous leaders in Winnipeg.

The first ministers had gathered at the Leaf horticultural attraction at Assiniboine Park to hear delegations from Indigenous political organizations and leaders ahead of formal Council of the Federation meetings this week, hosted by Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson.

While that group met on the second floor of the biome, a group of protesters gathered in the main floor lobby.

Powered by drums and a megaphone, they called for a search of the Brady Road and Prairie Green landfills for the remains of at least two Indigenous women police have said were slain by an alleged serial murderer.

Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman whom the Indigenous community has named Buffalo Woman.

Winnipeg police believe the remains of Myran and Harris were transported by garbage trucks to Prairie Green, north of the city, where they were buried.

Harris’s daughter, Cambria, called on the premiers to listen and acknowledge families devastated by the events and to offer their support in giving the slain women a proper resting place.

She was surrounded by about a dozen other protesters, including Sue Caribou, whose niece, Tanya Nepinak, was last seen in September 2011. Police suspected Nepinak’s body was put in a garbage bin and transported to Brady Road. A search was conducted in 2012; her body was never found.

“When you don’t say anything, you are condoning the continuous dumping and violence against Indigenous women,” Harris said via a loudspeaker.

“These are the people, these are the victims of your system that you put in place to take us apart. Hear us finally, and acknowledge that this happening, and that you are going to do something, because if you are not going to step up, I ask that you step down.”

“When you don’t say anything, you are condoning the continuous dumping and violence against Indigenous women.”–Cambria Harris

Assembly of First Nations regional chief Cindy Woodhouse said she raised the issue during the meeting, which was also attended by Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron; Native Women’s Association of Canada president Carol McBride; Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Chief Elmer St. Pierre; Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand; and Treaty One Inc. chairman Gordon Bluesky.

On July 5, Stefanson informed the Harris and Myran families the province would not support a proposed search of Prairie Green, owing to safety concerns.

Woodhouse said a feasibility study conducted by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, with support from the federal government, determined a search is possible — and told the premiers as much.

“And then for the province to just shut it down, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” Woodhouse said. “They need to come back to the table and start working with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, with the families that have been impacted.

“I can’t even imagine what those people are feeling.”

Monday’s meeting was also a chance to garner support from the other premiers, she said. “It’s a Canadian issue. It’s unfortunate, and it’s unfortunate that we even have to have these discussions, and I think that our women deserve more.”

At the conclusion of the three-hour meeting, Stefanson said her decision not to support a search of Prairie Green is final.

The complexity and viability of the proposed excavation cannot be ignored, and there are other ways to work together on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, she said.

“We have made our decision,” Stefanson. “We want to be there for the families and offer the supports and help them heal through this process.”

Many other issues, including housing and the environment, were discussed, said Stefanson,.

The annual COF summer meeting continues Tuesday, with premiers set to discuss affordability, health care and a range of economic issues. The event concludes Wednesday evening.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca