Supporters in Vancouver add to calls to search Winnipeg landfills for Indigenous homicide victims

A crowd rallied in East Vancouver in December 2022 to honour four Indigenous women murdered in Winnipeg, and to join calls for police to search for the victims' remains.

A solidarity rally was held at the Vancouver Art Gallery Wednesday night as supporters echoed calls to search a Winnipeg landfill for the bodies of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

For months, advocates and families have been demonstrating outside Winnipeg’s Brady Landfill, demanding for a search of the Prairie Green Landfill north of the city. That’s where the remains of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified victim that’s been named Buffalo Woman are believed to be located.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson announced in July that the province would not permit the search out of concerns for the potential health and safety risks for searchers. She also cited the finds of a feasibility study that said workers could encounter toxic material and that there is no guarantee anything will be found.

Organizers of the Vancouver rally are pushing back against Stefanson’s reasoning.

"It's very disgusting, it's very heartbreaking,” Amanda Nahanee told CTV News.

"This is a serious situation, people are being murdered and now they're being dumped off at landfills,” she said. “I think the least they can do is take a look to see if they're there.”

Stefanson’s decision has sparked blow-black from many, including federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, who called her decision “heartless.”

The blockade at the Winnipeg landfill where protestors had set up was removed by local authorities in mid-July.

Nahanee says they stand with those who continued to push for justice.

“We want to share our support,” she said.

“We want to let them know that we’ve heard them, we’re heartbroken as well, and we send our love.”

Jeremy Skibicki is facing four charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, Myran, Buffalo Woman and Rebecca Contois—whose remains were found at the Brady Landfill last June.

With files from CTV Winnipeg’s Devon McKendrick