Families of two slain First Nations women believe they are one step closer to the answers they’ve been seeking for almost two years, as the third stage of the search for the women’s remains gets underway.
On Wednesday afternoon, Premier Wab Kinew joined Indigenous leaders, and family and friends of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran at the Prairie Green Landfill to announce that a brand new search facility pad is nearing completion, and excavators have begun moving materials above e the targeted search zone at the landfill.
Once the search gets officially underway, officials said all materials removed from the targeted zones will be searched at the search facility pad, which has been built specifically for the landfill search operation.
An engineering assessment of the targeted zone has also been completed and recruitment for workers has been ongoing, with job postings for technicians closing earlier in October.
Kinew told media gathered at the Prairie Green landfill on Wednesday that the plan is to “officially” start the search by early December.
Family members of both Harris and Myran have been fighting for a search of Prairie Green, a privately owned facility located north of Winnipeg, since December of 2022 when Winnipeg police (WPS) announced the arrest of Jeremy Skibicki for the murders of four First Nations women and said they believed the remains of Harris and Myran had been dumped in the landfill.
Police said at the time they wouldn’t search the landfill for the women’s remains because they did not believe it was “feasible.”
Over the last two years protest encampments have been set up both at the Brady Road Landfill in Winnipeg and at The Forks to demand a search be given the green light, and on three separate occasions, protesters blocked access to the Brady Road Landfill, including last summer when a court-ordered injunction forced the removal of a barricade built by protesters and led to some tense moments when it was unsure if protesters would back off from the blockade, which they eventually did.
“To the families, you have been put through something that no one should ever have to experience, both in the way your loved ones were taken from you, but also in all of the advocacy,” Kinew said. “Nobody should have ever had to stand on the side of a road just to ask for basic dignity.
“As you look around here today, and you look at the many Manitoban’s who stepped up to do this work, and at the incredible amount of infrastructure that’s been constructed, and all of the human resources that are being assembled, I hope that you understand that this province cares about you.”
Last year, Manitoba’s PC government and Premier Heather Stefanson said the PCs would not support a landfill search, because of the safety hazards a report said a search would pose. The PCs then made not searching the landfill one of the pillars of their campaign and took out newspaper ads and billboards citing their decision to “stand firm” on a landfill search, a move criticized by Kinew.
“The search of the Prairie Green Landfill was always feasible,” Kinew said. “It was always possible, it required political will.”
After winning the October 2023 election, Manitoba’s NDP government and the federal government pledged $20 million each to fund a search of the landfill. The provincial and federal governments have also earmarked cash to provide mental health support for the families and loved ones of the women believed to be in the Prairie Green Landfill while the search takes place.
Cambria Harris, the daughter of Morgan Harris said at Wednesday’s press conference that families are happy and relieved to finally see the search moving forward, after almost two years of wondering if one would ever happen.
“It’s been two years now that my mom has been laying in a landfill as well as Marcedes Myran, and that’s two years too long and I’m excited to finally be getting this underway,” Harris said.
“We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
In June, Skibicki was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris and Myran as well as for the killings of Rebecca Contois, whose remains were discovered at the Brady Road Landfill in 2022, and an unidentified woman that community members have been referring to as Buffalo Women.
Skibicki is serving four concurrent life sentences with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
