Federal Government to Fund and Resource the Search for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Their bodies believed to be located in a private landfill
Their bodies believed to be located in a private landfill
Winnipeg, Manitoba — Leaders of the Long Plain First Nation in Manitoba recently declared their plan to search the Prairie Green Landfill themselves for the remains of Morgan Harris and Mercedes Myran, two of four women murdered last year by the same man. Following the success of their fundraising campaign, the federal government is now stepping in to support.
Provincial authorities have refused to conduct the search, citing the labour risks involved, despite the fact that a feasibility study paid for by the federal government and led by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs concluded that the search could in fact be undertaken safely. The main caveat of the study: that there was no guarantee that these women’s bodies would be found.
The families of the deceased understand the risk and have desired a search for their own closure and healing, and that of a community still reeling from colonial violence.
It was the Winnipeg Police who concluded that the bodies were most likely in a particular area of the privately owned landfill just north of the city, but that it would not be feasible to conduct a search. The premier has since made it part of her re-election campaign to loudly refuse the search.
Now the first nation, with the support of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, and other Indigenous and allied organizations and individuals across the country, has raised enough money so far to cover the first year of the $184 million project. This on the heels of province and nationwide rallies this summer and fall.
Prepared to see the search through without Canadian government support, the nation welcomed the following announcement from the new Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, that the government will step in to cover the balance of expenses, as well as manpower from the RCMP.
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