OTTAWA – The families of two First Nations women whose remains are believed to be in a Winnipeg landfill say they were disappointed by a meeting with a Liberal cabinet minister in Ottawa.
The remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are suspected to be at Prairie Green Landfill, a private facility north of Winnipeg, and the families have been asking provincial and federal leaders to fund a search.
Their families say they expected Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree to tell them the federal government would tell them it would fund the search when they met him today.
Instead, his daughter Cambria Harris calls the meeting a retraumatizing experience and says the federal government has not yet promised to help.
Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, Myran and two other people: Rebecca Contois, whose partial remains were found in a different landfill last year, and an unidentified woman whom Indigenous leaders call Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe or Buffalo. Women.
Families, supporters and organizations, including Amnesty International Canada, are marking the International Day of Action to Find Landfills today, in an effort to pressure governments to do more.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2023.