Judge urges city, landfill protesters to work toward resolution By: Dean Pritchard and Tyler Searle Posted: 3:20 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 13, 2023 Last Modified: 5:55 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 13, 2023 Updates

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A judge is urging City of Winnipeg officials and Indigenous protesters to find common ground in their dispute over access to the Brady Road landfill.

On Thursday, King’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery adjourned a motion for a court injunction that would allow the city to remove protesters blocking access to the south Winnipeg landfill until Friday morning, encouraging both sides to reach an agreement that did not require intervention from the court.

“Is there a way forward here that will lead to a better resolution for the city and the Indigenous people… and with the ability to continue to protest, but not blockade the road, the ability to hand out material, to speak to people as they arrive?” Lanchbery said.

“We can’t force people to listen, we can’t force people to read, but we can certainly educate the public on what that message is,” he said. “Is that something the city would be opposed to?”

”We can’t force people to listen, we can’t force people to read, but we can certainly educate the public on what that message is.”–King’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery

“I suspect not,” responded City of Winnipeg lawyer Ashley Pledger.

“I can say, given the last seven months that the city permitted the encampment near the road, that that would be in the spirit similar… (City chief administrative officer Michael Jack) has expressed a willingness to sit down with the respondents.”

Lanchbery ordered the one-day adjournment, following lengthy submissions by lawyers representing protesters and the city early Thursday afternoon.

The city filed a notice of application for a court injunction Tuesday, to halt the group’s week-long blockade of the main road leading to the landfill.

Advocates for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people are blocking the road, demanding governments support searches of Winnipeg-area landfills for human remains.

The action was spurred by the province’s refusal last week to support such a search of the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill, north of Winnipeg, for the remains of Indigenous women Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

They are two of four women city police believe to be victims of an alleged serial killer.

”We would really like to do anything we can to find a compromise here.”–City CAO Michael Jack

The city is “absolutely open to any suggestions that gets the roadway (at Brady Road) open,” Jack said outside court. “We really are all ears. The last thing we want is having to remove anybody or remove a blockade.

“We would really like to do anything we can to find a compromise here.”

The Winnipeg CAO said an injunction would allow for the removal of protesters from the roadway, not the landfill site altogether.

If an injunction were ordered, the city would not have any say in how or when police would remove protesters, Pledger noted in court.

Earlier, lawyer Sacha Paul, representing the protesters, urged Lanchbery not to approve an interlocutory injunction — a temporary injunction put in place until a final ruling is made — and instead adjourn the hearing to a later date to allow for a “full and fair disclosure of all material facts.”

Paul argued alternate road access to the landfill has allowed waste delivery operations to continue in the presence of the protesters, invalidating the city’s “urgent” claim for an injunction.

However, an emergency access road into the facility “is not suitable for customer traffic or large vehicles,” the city said in an affidavit filed in support of the injunction motion.

Another alternate route, via Waverley Street and Rue des Trappistes, was rendered unusable following heavy rains July 6, the city added.

“Like any mud or sand road, in extended periods of dryness, the road can perform relatively well,” Jack said outside court Thursday. “With any rainfall, it has demonstrated it can’t.”

At the blockade site Thursday, protester Diane Bousquet remained optimistic the conflict could be resolved without further legal action.

“It speaks volumes that the judge has decided to go through the information. I am hopeful that he sees inconsistencies with what’s going on,” she said.

“It leaves me knowing that, with what we’re doing, people are listening and they are hearing us.”

”This feels like a defining moment in Canadian history.”–Diane Bousquet

The best-case scenario would be for the province to reverse its decision and support a proposed search, she said, calling Premier Heather Stefanson’s offer to instead install a monument “very cold-hearted.”

“This feels like a defining moment in Canadian history. We are setting a precedent for our community.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019.

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Tyler Searle
Reporter

Since joining the paper in 2022, Tyler has found himself driving through blizzards, documenting protests and scouring the undersides of bridges for potential stories.

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