Stefanson’s celebration of unwillingness to search landfill insensitive

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This article was published 25/09/2023 (785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Once again, a Manitoba premier has staked their political fate on comments about Indigenous peoples.

It’s been just over two years since Brian Pallister infamously said, “People who came here to this country before it was a country, and since, didn’t come here to destroy anything, they came here to build.” It was a factually incorrect, harmful and divisive comment that helped lead to his party rejecting him and spurred his resignation as leader.

Pallister’s successor, Heather Stefanson, recently made a Pallister-like statement when the Progressive Conservative party published a one-page ad in the Free Press lauding her promise to “stand firm” on the issue of searching the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of two slain Indigenous women.

“For health and safety reasons,” a quote beside Stefanson’s photo and the block letters “STAND FIRM” states, “the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.”

Like Pallister, Stefanson’s statement is not correct. Experts on landfill searches have said a dig at the Prairie Green landfill site can be done safely.

Like Pallister’s comment, Stefanson’s celebration of her unwillingness to search is insensitive and harmful to Indigenous peoples (particularly the families of homicide victims Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris, whose remains are believed to be at the landfill). And like her predecessor, her statement is deeply divisive.

Perhaps the strongest echo of Pallister is that the words in the PC ad complete his vision. By arguing she will not search the landfill, Stefanson sees a chance to build. And the Tories might not be completely wrong.

The newest Probe Research poll on election issues commissioned by the Free Press and CTV News Winnipeg found 47 per cent of Manitobans support searching the landfill for the remains of Myran and Harris, while 45 per cent are against it. Eight per cent of respondents are “unsure.”

Thirty per cent of those polled either “strongly support” or “strongly oppose” a landfill search.

In these numbers, Stefanson sees a chance to build support for the PCs. The Tories are trailing Wab Kinew’s New Democratic Party in support by 11 per cent, the same Probe poll found.

The poll found the groups who least support a search are men, people 55 and older, with a high school education or less, earning an income of $100,000 or higher, and are white or people of colour. (The poll includes three racial categories, the third being Indigenous. Forty-six per cent of both white people and people of colour are in favour of a search, while 60 per cent of Indigenous respondents are in favour.)

A cynic might say that most of these groups are part of the traditional conservative base of voters, but putting so much money into such a high-profile and aggressive campaign suggests something more.

Stefanson sees potential electoral support elsewhere because of this issue. Presuming a large portion of the 30 per cent of people who are “strongly against” a search are already Tory voters, that leaves the 15 per cent who are less strongly opposed to appeal to. That group would have to be convinced a landfill search is a waste of resources.

Stefanson has said there are “no guarantees” in a search, so one shouldn’t happen at all.

There is also no guarantee voters will think it’s fine for the remains of Indigenous women to remain in a garbage dump, but Stefanson is trying that strategy anyway.

It’s a sad statement in Indigenous and Canadian relationships in Manitoba.

I see a different Manitoba.

I have been touring Manitoba and speaking to audiences about Orange Shirt Day every day this week and nearly every day this month. As of Monday, I had spoken to about 4,000 people. That number will surpass 6,000 by Friday.

I’ve been all over Winnipeg, but also north into the Interlake and west to Portage la Prairie. On Tuesday, I headed south to Altona.

As in past years, I have been impressed with the levels of interest and engagement. I have been impressed by the thousands of people wearing orange shirts who want to talk about the legacies of residential schools. They want to discuss issues such as homelessness, addiction and poverty, and how to empower the fastest-growing segment of Manitoba’s economy: Indigenous youth.

I have heard how Manitobans are educating themselves, volunteering and working very hard to bridge the gap between Indigenous communities and Canadians.

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The thing that has struck me the most is how varied audiences have been, with people of every age, race, gender and sexuality.

Perhaps the people to whom Stefanson is appealing don’t come to Orange Shirt Day events. I acknowledge that.

I bet those people work with, live beside or are married to someone who does, though.

Manitobans will soon find out whether Stefanson’s strategy of celebrating the decision not to search for the remains of Indigenous women will work, or whether she will follow the fate of the last premier who tried such an approach.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Niigaan Sinclair
Columnist

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press.

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