A solidarity march for the ‘Search the Landfills’ movement will be taking place in Prince George, as rallies are being planned across Canada.
Called ‘Search the Landfills International Day of Action’, the event will take place on Monday Sept. 18 on the steps of City Hall at 10 a.m.
“There are four women, four of our Indigenous sisters, whose remains are in the landfills in Winnipeg, and they are the victims of a serial killer,” explained organizer Sonya Rock, a Gitxsan residential school survivor and educator at Nusdeh Yoh Elementary School.
In May 2022, Winnipeg resident Jeremy Skibicki was arrested and charged with the murder of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois, of the Crane River First Nation.
Skibicki was also charged with the murder of three other women: Morgan Harris, Mercedes Myran and an unidentified woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe by the Indigenous community.
In June 2022, Winnipeg police investigators recovered the remains of Contois at the Brady Road landfill.
They believe the remains of Harris and Myran, of the Long Plain First Nation, are also in a landfill in a section of the Prairie Green site, just outside Winnipeg.
However, Winnipeg police have stated they won’t search the landfill citing feasibility and a low possibility of recovery.
Families and Indigenous leaders have met with various levels of government to discuss a federally funded feasibility study.
It found a search of the landfill is feasible, but many measures would be needed to reduce the risk to workers. It could also cost as much as $184 million.
Experts consulted for the study have said risks could be mitigated and the search could be done safely.
Calls for a search have now spread coast to coast.
“Why would anybody ever deny that they should be respected, searched for, and given a proper burial by their families?” said Rock.
“I was almost murdered when I was 23 years old in Vancouver. And in my travels throughout B.C, and in the last thirty years as an educator, I know of at least 10 women that have survived,” said Rock.
“Because I'm a survivor it means a lot to me to be able to support our family in Winnipeg.”
Rock said the event in Prince George will include an opening prayer by Lheidli T’enneh Elder Darlene McIntosh, speeches, drumming, and a one-kilometre march in a loop around the nearby downtown area.
“The families continue to mourn and pray there's no closure for them because they don't know where their loved ones are and so it would mean a lot to us if our allies, if Canadians could add their voices to our voices to ask that the government help us, to stop this genocide of Indigenous people in in Canada.”
- with files from the Canadian Press
