‘A renewed sense of hope’ After nearly year-long battle, families of Indigenous women believed buried in landfill put faith in Kinew government to bring suspected serial killer’s victims home By: Chris Kitching Posted: 5:40 PM CDT Friday, Oct. 27, 2023

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This article was published 27/10/2023 (723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been almost a year since Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran’s families began fighting for a Winnipeg-area landfill to be searched for the remains of the slain First Nations women.

They were repeatedly told no — compounding their grief — but it strengthened their resolve and desire to spare other families from the same anguish.

“What kept me going was the fact that it continues to happen, in terms of women going missing and women being murdered,” Cambria Harris, one of Harris’s daughters, told the Free Press. “Indigenous people are still vulnerable on the streets.”

The families and Indigenous leaders have renewed optimism that a search of the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill will happen, following the change of government in Manitoba.

Tears welled in Donna Bartlett’s eyes and her soft voice broke with emotion when she was greeted by the province’s new premier, Wab Kinew, at the Manitoba legislature Thursday.

“It’s been a year, over a year now, and I don’t think I’m going to make it anymore,” said Bartlett. Police believe Myran — her granddaughter — and Harris were killed in May 2022.

Bartlett pleaded with Manitoba’s first First Nations premier to “bring our girls home.”

Kinew, repeating a pre-election pledge, promised the families that this government will try to do that. He said he will work with them, the supportive federal Liberal government, First Nations chiefs and others.

Kyra Wilson, chief of Long Plain First Nation, where Harris and Myran were from, gave Kinew a letter asking for funds to help complete planning work.

“It’s been a year, over a year now, and I don’t think I’m going to make it anymore.”–Donna Bartlett, Marcedes Myran’s grandmother

As for when a search could begin, the timeline depends on the pace of discussions between governments, said Wilson. A funding model has to be worked out.

The outcome of the Oct. 3 provincial vote brought a swift start to the planning stage of a proposed search, after Harris and Myran’s loved ones faced uncertain odds a few weeks ago.

Former premier Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservative government refused to support a search, saying it would not risk the health and safety of searchers without a guarantee of success.

Before Thursday’s private meeting, Kinew apologized to the families for the way they were treated by the previous government.

The Winnipeg Police Service believes Harris, Myran and two other Indigenous women — Rebecca Contois and a still-unidentified victim named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by elders — were slain by an alleged serial killer in early 2022.

The identified victims were living in Winnipeg and vulnerable. Some experienced addictions or homelessness, and received support from shelters or other outreach groups.

Dismembered remains belonging to Contois, who was from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, have been recovered. Buffalo Woman is still missing.

Detectives believe the remains of Harris and Myran were deposited in the same truckload at Prairie Green, located just north of the city in the Rural Municipality of Rosser.

Now that preliminary work is underway, Cambria Harris feels her mother is finally being treated as human and with dignity.

“It’s been a really tough road,” she said prior to meeting the premier. “There are so many steps to get a search started. I have a renewed sense of hope because the amount of support has been overwhelming, and things slowly seem to be getting somewhere.”

The Harris and Myran families have been campaigning for a search since December, when police informed them of the women’s deaths, which occurred seven months earlier. The notification came after the WPS gathered enough evidence to lay charges against a suspect.

Police did not reveal a suspected motive when they held a news conference Dec. 1 to publicly announce the deaths of three more women.

The investigation began May 16, 2022, when partial human remains belonging to Contois, 24, were found in a garbage bin in a back lane behind Edison Avenue in North Kildonan.

A section of the city-run Brady Road landfill was sealed a short time later, allowing police to recover additional remains during a search the following month. GPS and cameras on the truck helped narrow the search field.

Without going into detail, police told reporters they believed there could be more victims.

Officers arrested Jeremy Skibicki two days later and charged him with first-degree murder in Contois’ death. He has been in custody since then.

On June 20, 2022, detectives learned Harris and Myran’s remains were likely taken to Prairie Green 34 days earlier. Police believe Harris, 39, and Myran, 26, were killed about three days apart.

Unbeknownst to their families, the WPS’s forensic unit assessed the section at Prairie Green and concluded a police search would not be feasible.

The decision was explained to the Harris and Myran families in December, while police faced mounting pressure to conduct a search.

At the Dec. 1 news conference, WPS Chief Danny Smyth said the bodies of Harris, Myran and the unidentified woman had not been found, but he did not foresee another landfill search.

Police did not immediately reveal their suspicions nor their decision regarding Prairie Green. At the time, the focus automatically became the city-owned Brady Road facility on Winnipeg’s southwest edge, given it is where some of Contois’ remains were found.

Five days later, during a visit to the House of Commons in Ottawa, Cambria Harris announced police had since told her the remains of her mother and Myran were likely at Prairie Green.

That afternoon, the WPS was forced to defend its decision not to search the site. Smyth and Insp. Cam MacKid said the effort was not possible due, in part, to safety concerns and a large volume of material being deposited over the 34-day period.

About 10,000 additional truckloads were dumped and compacted with 9,000 tonnes of wet clay to a depth of about 12 metres, said police.

Smyth said there was “no hope” of a successful recovery.

With a police search out of the question and no government taking the lead, the Indigenous community was forced to co-ordinate efforts.

To highlight their calls, Harris’s family set up a camp next to the Brady Road landfill. Myran’s relatives later set up a camp outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The families said the camps will stay put until the women are recovered.

The effort took a major step forward in February. Ottawa advanced $500,000 for a feasibility study that was led by forensic and search specialists who were hired by a committee overseen by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

The study found a search is feasible, and any risks or hazards, such as exposure to toxic chemicals or asbestos, could be mitigated with proper planning, training, equipment and methods for excavating and searching material.

The study said a search could take one to three years at a cost of $84 million to $184 million, with dozens of staff required.

While there was no guarantee of success, not searching the landfill could cause considerable distress to the families, the report said.

The preferred option is to use machinery to excavate and transport truckloads of material to a custom-built structure on-site. Workers would sort through material on a conveyor belt.

The report suggests the women’s remains are in an area measuring 200 by 100 metres, with a maximum waste depth of 10 metres. It said up to 61,000 tonnes of material would be excavated.

Family members, WPS and RCMP officers, and staff from the city, province and federal government contributed to the study.

Forensic experts consulted by the committee believe there is a good chance of success. Co-operation between governments, they said, was essential. The province and Ottawa weren’t on the same page, however.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would “be there” for the families. Ottawa needed a willing partner in the province, which has jurisdiction over Manitoba’s landfills.

Stefanson met with Harris and Myran’s loved ones July 5 to tell them she wouldn’t support a search.

Her position sparked a war of words with Marc Miller, then-minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, who called it a “heartless” decision that hindered Ottawa’s ability to help.

Stefanson described Miller’s criticism as inflammatory, while accusing him of politicizing a tragedy.

AMC Grand Chief Cathy Merrick said the families and the committee became a “political yo-yo” between the governments. She remained optimistic through the ups and downs.

Previous refusals forced the families to relive their trauma.

“They’re the most resilient people I’ve ever encountered,” Merrick said after the meeting with Kinew. “To be able to stick together as families, and they never once backed down.”

Tensions increased in the community as the stalemate continued over the summer. In July, a judge granted the City of Winnipeg a temporary injunction to bring an end to a blockade of the Brady Road landfill.

At the barricade, a Free Press reporter witnessed some passersby shout insults at protesters. A driver threw an object at a group of women from his car window.

Cambria Harris has been public about receiving hateful comments on social media.

“They’re the most resilient people I’ve ever encountered … To be able to stick together as families, and they never once backed down.”–AMC Grand Chief Cathy Merrick

Pro-search protesters vandalized the WPS headquarters and Stefanson’s constituency office in River Heights. A supporter was charged after allegedly threatening private security guards at Brady Road.

A Winnipeg man dumped dirt on a mural honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. After his home was vandalized, he offered an apology while surrounded by police.

In September, a poll commissioned by the Free Press and CTV suggested Manitobans are divided on a possible search. The Probe Research survey found 47 per cent of respondents were in favour, while 45 per cent were opposed. The remaining eight per cent were undecided.

At that time, the Tories had made their refusal a central theme of their failed bid for re-election.

Newspaper and billboard advertisements that promoted the PCs’ opposition were branded insensitive and divisive by the families.

“No one who has their loved ones taken from them in the fashion that you have should ever be forced to become a political prop in an election campaign,” Kinew told the families Thursday. “I am deeply sorry that you have been put through that.”

The day after the NDP won a majority government, new Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced $740,000 in funding to kick-start some of the preparatory work.

The committee has 90 days to further study and report back on matters such as training and measures to mitigate the risks. The calendar has been filled with meetings with specialists.

Compared with the PC government, the meeting with Kinew had a much different tone. It started with handshakes and hugs, while the premier made it clear he wanted to “reset” the relationship between the province, the families and Indigenous leaders.

The relationship between Manitoba and Ottawa has also been reset. Kinew and Anandasangaree have discussed the potential search.

“Our hearts break for the families,” Joanna Sivasankaran, a spokeswoman for Anandasangaree, wrote in an email. “The deaths of these women are a painful reminder of the national crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and (LGBTTQ+) people. We continue work to address the root causes this crisis, and put an end to this violence for good.”

“No one who has their loved ones taken from them in the fashion that you have should ever be forced to become a political prop in an election campaign … I am deeply sorry that you have been put through that.”–Manitoba Premier, Wab Kinew

Ontario-based Waste Connections of Canada owns the sprawling Prairie Green Landfill.

District manager Barry Blue said the company is ready to lend expertise or help “in any way possible.”

“In addition to any facilities that must be constructed, there are several requirements which must be fulfilled prior to beginning a search,” he wrote in an email. “Health and safety plans, engineering designs and plans, operational logistics and all environmental impact and risk concerns must be addressed and approved in co-operation with regulating agencies and all levels of government.”

Prairie Green is not the only landfill the committee wants to search. Crown-Indigenous Relations is reviewing a request for funding to conduct a feasibility study for Brady Road.

Mayor Scott Gillingham is open to a search of the city’s only active landfill, but the effort would have to be led by senior levels of government, said his spokesman, Colin Fast.

The city could offer assistance if a search of Prairie Green proceeds.

“If there was a role for our water and waste experts or WPS then we’d be open to that request,” Fast wrote in an email.

Gillingham repeated the position Friday, while attending an unrelated event alongside Kinew, Liberal member of Parliament Terry Duguid and Merrick.

“If the decision is to search Prairie Green Landfill, we will marshal the resources — the staff of the City of Winnipeg — if they’re needed,” he said.

Duguid (Winnipeg South) reaffirmed Ottawa’s pledge to work with the committee.

“We hold the families in our hearts,” he said. “It really is the message of today — collaboration, working together on a very tragic and sensitive issue.”

The AMC-led committee made six recommendations in its feasibility report. It wants governments to spend more on social supports for Indigenous peoples and homeless shelters, and make GPS tracking and rear-facing cameras mandatory in all garbage trucks.

Those discussions should begin now, said Wilson.

“We are talking about a landfill search, but we are also talking about systemic change,” she said.

While the families prepare for a possible search, they’re also bracing to hear upsetting details when Skibicki’s trial begins in April.

“No one can prepare you for whatever is going to happen in those rooms, because that’s when you get the answers,” said Cambria Harris. “I am horrified to know what happened to my mom. At the same time, I kind of need the closure.”

Skibicki, 36, is maintaining his plea of not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, said his lawyer, Leonard Tailleur.

“No one can prepare you for whatever is going to happen in those rooms, because that’s when you get the answers … I am horrified to know what happened to my mom. At the same time, I kind of need the closure.”–Cambria Harris

The charges indicate Crown prosecutors and police believe the alleged crimes were premeditated.

Pre-trial motions will be heard by a judge in November.

As for Buffalo Woman, her identity is still a mystery — to the public, at least. A WPS spokeswoman said there have been no new developments in the search for Buffalo Woman.

Police believe Buffalo Woman was killed in March 2022. At the Dec. 1 news conference, investigators released photos of a Baby Phat-brand jacket similar to one she is believed to have worn.

They hoped someone would recognize it and identify her.

The last thing police want is for her to be a Jane Doe, Insp. Shawn Pike said at the time.

— with files from Carol Sanders

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching