Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative Party has issued an apology to the families of four First Nations women murdered by a serial killer in 2022 for refusing to support a search of a Winnipeg-area landfill for their remains.
“Honourable Speaker, our government erred. It’s as simple as that,” interim PC Leader Wayne Ewasko stated during question period at the Manitoba Legislature on Wednesday.
“We went forward and followed advice to emphasize prosecution above all. We lost our way in regards to empathy and also lost our way in regards to closure being brought forward to the families of the victims,” Ewasko admitted.
Former PC leader and Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson announced in July 2023 that the province would not fund the search for the remains of Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, believed to be in the Prairie Green landfill. She cited health and safety concerns and low chances of success. The PC party reinforced this stance during the October 2023 provincial election campaign, stating, “For health and safety reasons, the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.”
The refusal sparked outrage among the victims’ families, First Nations leaders, and the wider community. Ewasko now says the party is offering an “unconditional apology” and vows to “be better.”
NDP Premier Wab Kinew, who won the 2023 election, committed to searching the landfill north of Winnipeg. The search, involving First Nations leaders, forensic anthropologists, and the victims’ families, began in December.
Last week, potential human remains were discovered at Prairie Green by a search team and subsequently analyzed by two forensic anthropologists, Kinew revealed at a news conference. The families were informed and spent the day at the landfill before calling on the PC party to improve its response.
Jeremy Skibicki was convicted of first-degree murder in the killings of Harris, Myran, Rebecca Contois, 24, from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, and a still-unidentified woman named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders.
Contois’s remains were found in a garbage bin in Winnipeg in May 2022, with additional remains located at the Brady Road landfill the following month. The remains of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe have never been found, though authorities believe she was Indigenous and in her 20s.
Source: Swifteradio.com
