Blockade must go: judge Brady Road protesters set fire to order, call it ‘another act of colonization’ after city workers deliver court injunction By: Dean Pritchard and Chris Kitching Posted: 12:45 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 14, 2023 Last Modified: 10:05 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 14, 2023 Updates

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Shouts of anger filled a Winnipeg courtroom Friday as a judge authorized Winnipeg police to remove Indigenous protesters who have blocked the main entrance to the city-owned Brady Road landfill for a week.

“How can the Canadian Coast Guard and government fund the submarine, but they won’t fund finding my sisters who are dead in a landfill,” Aundrea Spence shouted at King’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery, referencing the multi-nation effort to rescue five people killed in an OceanGate submersible last month. “How is that fair? Do you have daughters?”

Lanchbery said he had no authority to order that the landfill be searched for human remains. “That’s what you are describing,” he said. “I appreciate your pain. I understand what that is like.”

“I don’t think you do,” Spence shot back. “You are a white man. You will never understand the pain that we go through.”

“I realize I have privilege that the Indigenous people do not, but I do not come from white privilege,” Lanchbery replied, saying he came from a “very poor background” before shutting down further discussion with a threat to have anyone who interrupted proceedings removed from the courtroom.

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Earlier, several protest supporters got to their feet and stormed out of the courtroom when Lanchbery ordered an interlocutory injunction be put in place to pave the way for the removal of protesters from the landfill roadway.

“There’s more, if you care to wait,” Lanchbery told the departing protesters, before going on to say his order would not prohibit protesters from occupying areas off the roadway and engaging with people who arrive at the landfill.

“The interlocutory injunction will not limit in any way anyone who wished to peacefully assemble and protest at or near the facility provided they do not block in any way the free flow of traffic,” Lanchbery said.

The order was to go into effect at 6 p.m. Friday.

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 provincial government’s decision last week not 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.

Lanchbery adjourned a hearing Thursday for further discussion between the city and protesters in the hopes of finding a compromise that would not require court intervention.

“My friend and I have had some (discussions), but as of now we are not in a position to put an agreement forward,” City of Winnipeg lawyer Ashley Pledger told Lanchbery Friday morning.

Lawyer Sacha Paul, representing the protesters as of only Tuesday, had urged Lanchbery to adjourn the matter until fuller, more detailed submissions could be provided to the court.

Lanchbery agreed to the adjournment, but rejected Paul’s request that an interim injunction not be put in place in the meantime, saying the city may suffer “serious injury if this relief is refused,” including lost tipping fee revenue and safety risks associated with work disruptions at the landfill.

“It is clear the city needs to operate its facility in a manner that it is authorized to do so without interruption,” Lanchbery said. “The balance favours the City of Winnipeg.”

“How come they weren’t kicked out? Because they were mostly white guys and this is Indigenous women who in the eyes of the law are not important and are not valued.”–Elder Val T. Vint

Outside court, elder Val T. Vint rejected Lanchbery’s order as “another act of colonization,” and pointed to how it differed from how authorities responded to the so-called “freedom convoy” that occupied Broadway in front of the legislature for three weeks in early 2022.

“They had a barbecue and a hot tub and all this stuff here and there were horns honking,” Vint said. “How come they weren’t kicked out? Because they were mostly white guys and this is Indigenous women who in the eyes of the law are not important and are not valued.”

Protesters vowed not to back down, with one man, responding to the threat of arrest with a shout of: “Let’s fill up the remand centre.”

Police “are going to be attacking grieving women there, women with children,” said Vivian Ketchum. “If you are at a funeral, do you want to be arrested?”

At the blockade, protesters were disappointed when they learned about the decision and the looming deadline. Some became emotional and hugged.

While protesters awaited an update from the demonstration’s organizers, Diane Bousquet said she remained hopeful for a peaceful resolution.

“I don’t feel like it’s a loss,” she said of the decision. “It’s mixed emotions. I think this whole experience is mixed emotions.”

Bousquet said she planned to hold her ground until she was told otherwise. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

Marcedes Myran’s sister, Jorden Myran, held a sign that stated “the landfill is not a grave.”

“I feel a lot of anger that they’re continuing to dump garbage on these landfills that have women in them, bodies in them,” she said. “We want them in a proper grave. If this was any of the government officials’s loved ones in there or if it was a white woman, a search would be done.”

Cambria Harris, one of Morgan Harris’s daughters, said she expected police to arrive and enforce the interim injunction.

“We are hoping that it is going to be peaceful,” she said in a video on Facebook. “We don’t want anything bad to happen to anyone.

“We are hoping that we can get some supporters to come down and just simply stand with us and lock arms, and we’ll just watch them do what they want to do.”

Late in the day, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said the judge’s ruling is fair and reasonable.

“The city remains open to exploring options with the protestors and their legal representatives.

“Our goal is to ensure the safe and sustainable operation of waste management services. At the same time, we are committed to upholding democratic rights for demonstrations, prioritizing safety for everyone involved,” the statement said.

After the decision was announced, NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine visited the protest site to show support and ensure the safety of women and children at the blockade was being prioritized.

“I understand that that’s also the priority of folks that are here,” she said, after speaking to protesters. “My main priority is that folks are protected and that things don’t escalate.

“Ultimately, I just want things to be safe. I want everybody to be safe.”

The discussion also touched on the group’s plans for the blockade.

“From what I understand, there’s discussions on maybe taking it somewhere else, which is the prerogative and the right of individuals,” said Fontaine, the NDP’s spokesperson for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

She remained hopeful the situation will be resolved peacefully through discussions.

“I have enormous optimism and belief in the community and in families that folks can work together on the best path forward, as long as there’s respect and people are listening to one another,” said the MLA for St. Johns.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew had said the party supports a search of the Prairie Green Landfill.

The Winnipeg Police Service would not comment on how or when it will enforce the court order.

“We have not yet seen the order and once we receive it we will be considering our next steps,” police spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon said in an email. “We do not typically provide information regarding police operational plans.”

Shortly after 6:15 p.m., a police liaison officer visited the blockade and spoke with Joseph Munro, who was named on the order and has been helping to run the camp since it was set up in December.

The officer asked Munro if the protesters were going to comply with the order and clear the road.

Munro said he would discuss the request with protest leaders.

Darryl Contois, a Harris family supporter who searches for missing people, said he spoke to the family and they want to stay put. He said if people don’t want to get arrested, they should stand aside.

Munro told the crowd not to fight back if the police move in. He wants Stefanson to resign. If the blockade is dismantled, the protest will move to the human rights museum, he suggested.

“Let’s do the right thing. Let’s bring this to Heather Stefanson’s office. Let’s stand up and say no to Heather Stefanson.”

After a city employee had handed out paper copies of the order while flanked by police, protesters set fire to one of the copies.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

chris.Kitching@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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Chris Kitching
Reporter

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

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