Despite facing a backlash and cheap accusations of being “heartless,” the Manitoba government has denied demands to fund a landfill search for the remains of two First Nations women..As tough a decision — both emotionally and politically — as that must have been, Premier Heather Stefanson’s government made the right call..To conduct that search would be extraordinarily dangerous for those sent in to sift through asbestos and highly toxic materials. And because of the passage of time and volume of debris since deposited there — about 10,000 truckloads — experts said at this point there’s no guarantee of finding remains..Police believe the remains of Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, victims of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki in 2022, are in the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.. Murdered womenMorgan Beatrice Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois. Winnipeg police say they have charged Jeremy Skibicki with first-degree murder in the deaths of all three women, as well as a fourth, who hasn't been identified but is being called Buffalo Woman. .Skibicki, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Harris, Myran and two other indigenous women..The partial remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, were found at Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill in June 2022. The location of an unidentified woman who has been named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe (Buffalo Woman), presumed to be in her 20s, is unknown..Thinking of what these victims went through at the hands of a murderous predator is too much for the mind of a stranger to bear..One can’t begin to understand the grief and mental torture their loved ones live with. But nothing will bring these women back..Although time mercifully will make the pain more gentle, does this push to search the landfill — one that has been shamefully politicized — just cruelly raise hopes and prolong whatever desperately-needed closure families can get?.Politicized?.Forces clamouring for a landfill search have jumped in, preying on the grief of the families to weaponize this with the aim of increasing the guilt of Canadians wrongly accused of being racist..They ignore facts and manufacture accusations that the search isn’t being conducted because the victims are indigenous..Yet, there is absolutely nothing on which to base this slyly, egregiously, unfairly divisive claim. Nothing! This was allegedly the work of one unemployed serial killer who is white. Statistics show that most indigenous women are murdered by indigenous men..Why isn’t there the same need to find closure for indigenous families by demanding a search of alleged residential school mass graves sites?.Instead, a Senate committee suspiciously demanded the federal government take action against residential school ‘denialism’ — see my colleague Nigel Hannaford's column on the subject — a move to punish and silence people for simply asking questions and wanting proof..Marion Buller, a retired judge who led the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, levelled an inexcusable cheap shot at the Manitoba government by saying the lives of indigenous women are a low priority..“They’re couching the problem of risk to searchers, safety risks, other risks to the environment as the reason, when it really comes down to money and what value our governments are willing to put on the lives of these women,” Buller told the CBC..Easy for her to say..Neither she nor her family members would be sent in to risk their health sifting through toxic waste. Somebody else’s family members would. And the Manitoba government has an obligation to protect them from that risk..Manitoba Justice Minister and Attorney General Kelvin Goertzen’s explanation for standing firm on no landfill search at a press conference yesterday had nothing to do with being heartless..But that’s how Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller described Manitoba’s stand. It was another cheap shot..The decision isn’t even based on the estimated $184 million search cost. Those slamming the provincial government know that..“Every family would advocate for their family, and every family should advocate for their family, but the provincial government's responsibility is broader than that,” said Goertzen, pointing to multiple factors at play, including the province’s responsibility to “all families.”.“And it has to consider what the risk is for the families and for those who might be doing a search on an industrial landfill site.”.Premier Stefanson has repeatedly and clearly explained the safety concerns for workers sifting through highly toxic materials at the landfill..Goertzen also noted the risk of jeopardizing the court case against Skibicki being built by Manitoba Prosecution Services.. Landfill blockadeThe main entrance to Brady Road landfill was blocked for over a week in response to the provincial government's decision not to fund a search of the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg, for the remains of two First Nations women who police allege were killed by the same man. .“(It) has made the determination that they have the evidence that they need … to lay charges against an accused in this case. My concern, from the attorney-general perspective, is to also ensure we don't disrupt that, because justice also has to be served for families.”.The families understandably want a proper burial..But Goertzen referred to the findings in the feasibility report..“There are no guarantees for success but there are significant short- and long-term concerns and considerations on the health of those who would have to conduct that search.”.“It's an industrial waste site. That was cited in the report in several different places, in terms of that challenge and the harm that exists there.”.Meanwhile, there have been landfill site blockades..Who organized these? Family members or someone else?.How unbiased were the still secret Landfill Search Feasibility Study Committee’s findings?.The federal government granted $500,000 for this at the request of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs..The nine-member body that recommended a search was comprised of indigenous members — none of whom had any excavation expertise..Would any of them crawl around in that toxic landfill?.Meanwhile, New Democrat Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan asked the United Nations to intervene in what she called a “failure” of all levels of Canadian government to properly address indigenous human rights issues..Gazan bleated in a letter to the UN rapporteur that the families of the victims “are now pawns” in a federal/provincial “jurisdictional” dispute..Or are these poor families really pawns for people who use race and skin colour to further their divisive political agendas?.And if so, that’s also the gravest of injustices to these women believed to have died horrible deaths at the hands of serial killer..It’s time to stop falsely accusing Canadians of not caring about them because they were indigenous.
Despite facing a backlash and cheap accusations of being “heartless,” the Manitoba government has denied demands to fund a landfill search for the remains of two First Nations women..As tough a decision — both emotionally and politically — as that must have been, Premier Heather Stefanson’s government made the right call..To conduct that search would be extraordinarily dangerous for those sent in to sift through asbestos and highly toxic materials. And because of the passage of time and volume of debris since deposited there — about 10,000 truckloads — experts said at this point there’s no guarantee of finding remains..Police believe the remains of Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, victims of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki in 2022, are in the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.. Murdered womenMorgan Beatrice Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois. Winnipeg police say they have charged Jeremy Skibicki with first-degree murder in the deaths of all three women, as well as a fourth, who hasn't been identified but is being called Buffalo Woman. .Skibicki, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Harris, Myran and two other indigenous women..The partial remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, were found at Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill in June 2022. The location of an unidentified woman who has been named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe (Buffalo Woman), presumed to be in her 20s, is unknown..Thinking of what these victims went through at the hands of a murderous predator is too much for the mind of a stranger to bear..One can’t begin to understand the grief and mental torture their loved ones live with. But nothing will bring these women back..Although time mercifully will make the pain more gentle, does this push to search the landfill — one that has been shamefully politicized — just cruelly raise hopes and prolong whatever desperately-needed closure families can get?.Politicized?.Forces clamouring for a landfill search have jumped in, preying on the grief of the families to weaponize this with the aim of increasing the guilt of Canadians wrongly accused of being racist..They ignore facts and manufacture accusations that the search isn’t being conducted because the victims are indigenous..Yet, there is absolutely nothing on which to base this slyly, egregiously, unfairly divisive claim. Nothing! This was allegedly the work of one unemployed serial killer who is white. Statistics show that most indigenous women are murdered by indigenous men..Why isn’t there the same need to find closure for indigenous families by demanding a search of alleged residential school mass graves sites?.Instead, a Senate committee suspiciously demanded the federal government take action against residential school ‘denialism’ — see my colleague Nigel Hannaford's column on the subject — a move to punish and silence people for simply asking questions and wanting proof..Marion Buller, a retired judge who led the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, levelled an inexcusable cheap shot at the Manitoba government by saying the lives of indigenous women are a low priority..“They’re couching the problem of risk to searchers, safety risks, other risks to the environment as the reason, when it really comes down to money and what value our governments are willing to put on the lives of these women,” Buller told the CBC..Easy for her to say..Neither she nor her family members would be sent in to risk their health sifting through toxic waste. Somebody else’s family members would. And the Manitoba government has an obligation to protect them from that risk..Manitoba Justice Minister and Attorney General Kelvin Goertzen’s explanation for standing firm on no landfill search at a press conference yesterday had nothing to do with being heartless..But that’s how Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller described Manitoba’s stand. It was another cheap shot..The decision isn’t even based on the estimated $184 million search cost. Those slamming the provincial government know that..“Every family would advocate for their family, and every family should advocate for their family, but the provincial government's responsibility is broader than that,” said Goertzen, pointing to multiple factors at play, including the province’s responsibility to “all families.”.“And it has to consider what the risk is for the families and for those who might be doing a search on an industrial landfill site.”.Premier Stefanson has repeatedly and clearly explained the safety concerns for workers sifting through highly toxic materials at the landfill..Goertzen also noted the risk of jeopardizing the court case against Skibicki being built by Manitoba Prosecution Services.. Landfill blockadeThe main entrance to Brady Road landfill was blocked for over a week in response to the provincial government's decision not to fund a search of the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg, for the remains of two First Nations women who police allege were killed by the same man. .“(It) has made the determination that they have the evidence that they need … to lay charges against an accused in this case. My concern, from the attorney-general perspective, is to also ensure we don't disrupt that, because justice also has to be served for families.”.The families understandably want a proper burial..But Goertzen referred to the findings in the feasibility report..“There are no guarantees for success but there are significant short- and long-term concerns and considerations on the health of those who would have to conduct that search.”.“It's an industrial waste site. That was cited in the report in several different places, in terms of that challenge and the harm that exists there.”.Meanwhile, there have been landfill site blockades..Who organized these? Family members or someone else?.How unbiased were the still secret Landfill Search Feasibility Study Committee’s findings?.The federal government granted $500,000 for this at the request of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs..The nine-member body that recommended a search was comprised of indigenous members — none of whom had any excavation expertise..Would any of them crawl around in that toxic landfill?.Meanwhile, New Democrat Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan asked the United Nations to intervene in what she called a “failure” of all levels of Canadian government to properly address indigenous human rights issues..Gazan bleated in a letter to the UN rapporteur that the families of the victims “are now pawns” in a federal/provincial “jurisdictional” dispute..Or are these poor families really pawns for people who use race and skin colour to further their divisive political agendas?.And if so, that’s also the gravest of injustices to these women believed to have died horrible deaths at the hands of serial killer..It’s time to stop falsely accusing Canadians of not caring about them because they were indigenous.
