NDP leaders express ‘explicitly clear’ commitment to landfill search

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This article was published 16/01/2024 (656 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government is stressing its ongoing commitment to search the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of two slain Indigenous women, after being criticized for moving too slow on the recovery effort.

“Our department, our government and certainly our premier has made it explicitly clear that we are committed to working with the families in doing that very important work and that remains unchanged,” Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday in Winnipeg.

Fontaine was responding to a Manitoba Human Rights Commission complaint lodged last week against the provincial government by Cambria Harris and Robyn Johnston.

The complaint was filed by Harris on behalf of her mother Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and an unidentified woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman), all of whom are believed to be victims of an alleged serial killer.

It claims the Manitoba government discriminates against Indigenous women, girls, LGBTTQ+ people and their families based on their ancestry, gender identity and sex by “refusing to make the funds and resources available to search the Brady Road and Prairie Green landfills.”

The complaint states the alleged discrimination has occurred on a continuing basis up to, and including, Jan. 10 — months after the NDP formed government in the Oct. 3, 2023, general election. In a post to social media, Harris wrote the complaint was filed “due to the lack of progress towards the search and the decisions surrounding it.”

Fontaine said it is inaccurate to state the current government has refused to make the funds and resources available to search privately owned Prairie Green, located just north of Winnipeg, where police believe the remains of Harris and Myran are located.

On Tuesday, Premier Wab Kinew said his government is “taking the time to get things right.”

Speaking to reporters during the first day of the Manitoba Ag Days conference in Brandon, Kinew said Manitobans can expect action on the file in the first half of the year.

“I think that these family members never should have been made the subject of political gamesmanship,” Kinew said. “And for us, we’ve just taken the steps to establish a respectful relationship. We’re going to take steps to ensure that we’re supporting them and also supporting the administration of justice in Manitoba… That’s our commitment.”

Kinew has previously said the effort could commence as early as summer and the government has determined what it will spend to search Prairie Green, in consultation with Indigenous leadership and the victims’ families.

A dollar figure has not been announced publicly.

Winnipeg police have charged Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, Myran, Buffalo Woman and Rebecca Contois. He has pleaded not guilty.

“There is a lot of moving pieces but we are committed to (a search) and we are working towards that end,” Fontaine said Tuesday, adding she met with the families less than three days ago. “There’s a lot of players, including (the government of) Canada, but those discussions are actively occurring.”

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She argued the complaint concerns the former Progressive Conservative government and its “grotesque example of racism” towards the missing women’s families.

Fontaine did not provide any additional details concerning a timeline.

“We are committed to searching the landfill. It takes work and it takes co-ordination and there are several key stakeholders that we are actively working with and actively engaged with,” she said.

— with files from Brandon Sun

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca