Calls to search Winnipeg-area landfills renewed after Lake St. Martin First Nation woman's body found

Indigenous advocates and organizations are renewing calls for a search for human remains in Winnipeg-area landfills, after the discovery of a First Nations woman's body at the Brady Road landfill this week.

Staff at the south Winnipeg landfill discovered the remains of Linda Mary Beardy, a 33-year-old woman originally from Lake St. Martin First Nation, on Monday afternoon, police said.

"Many people call it a graveyard and we continue to put garbage there," said Cindy Woodhouse, the regional chief for Manitoba with the Assembly of First Nations, in an interview Tuesday, shortly after police announced the discovery at Brady Road.

"We know that it's a graveyard. And there's been so many other people, women that are missing. Where are they?"

Operations at the Brady Road landfill operation have been paused while investigators work there, police said Tuesday.

The landfill was closed for several weeks in December and January, during protests and calls for a site-wide search for the remains of missing people. That came after police announced more charges against a man already accused in the death of Rebecca Contois, whose partial remains were found at Brady Road last June.

In early December, police said they believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — two of the other First Nations women Jeremy Skibicki is accused of killing — were taken to Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg.

The location of the remains of a fourth woman, who has not yet been identified but whom community members have named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, are unknown. Skibicki has been charged in connection with her death as well.

Police said Tuesday they have no reason to believe Beardy's death is connected to any other cases. While her death is considered suspicious, it isn't yet classified as a homicide, they said.

Cambria Harris, Morgan Harris's daughter, is deeply critical of the police for not immediately undertaking a search of the Prairie Green landfill for her mother's remains.

Last year, police said it wasn't feasible to do so because they only became aware that the remains were likely dumped at Prairie Green more than a month after it's believed that happened.

"When you say that you're not going to search the landfill, you're sending the message that it's OK to dump people or Indigenous women like trash," Cambria Harris said in an interview on Tuesday.

Harris says she feels like she walks around with a target on her back because she's an Indigenous woman.

"It's heartbreaking because people take advantage of that and they take advantage of the vulnerable and and the minorities, and we see it happen again and again," she said.

In February, the federal government committed $500,000 for a feasibility study of a search of the Priarie Green landfill.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Tuesday that study is expected to be completed within four to six weeks, and expressed confidence the study will deem the search and recovery efforts feasible.

Once that search is underway, "we can then concentrate on the Brady landfill next," the organization said in a news release.

AMC Grand Chief Cathy Merrick said in a Tuesday interview that she fully supports an extensive search of that dump, and wants the federal government to support it.

Southern Chiefs' Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said he called for the Brady Road landfill to be classified an active crime scene back in December.

With the news of the discovery of Beardy's body there, it's clear much more must be done to protect Indigenous women, Daniels said in a news release.

The AFN's Woodhouse says now is the time for all levels of government to act on the many recommendations made in 2019 by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

"There's been calls to justice," she said. "We need to begin implementing them to ensure that we're trying to help our women — that we don't keep ending up in landfills."