First Nations advocacy groups, daughters of slain woman demand resignation of Winnipeg police chief
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
First Nations advocacy groups, a local chief and family members are demanding that Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth resign over his decision not to search a landfill for the remains of two women.
Police believe the remains of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris, both members of Long Plain First Nation, are in the Prairie Green Landfill, but they said earlier this week that a search for their bodies isn't feasible.
Harris's daughters Kera and Cambria Harris spoke at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday, calling for Smyth's resignation over his "disgusting" decision not to search for their mother.
"We saw this happen with residential schools, and here you are, once again, creating unmarked graves of Indigenous peoples, and that's wrong and it needs to end," Cambria said.
"If you can't help us, if you don't feel like you're capable of finding these women, then you should step down and give someone else a chance to make the right decision and give us a resolution," Kera said.
Long Plain First Nation Chief Kyra Wilson said the Winnipeg Police Service's inaction is sending a troubling message.
"To me, the message that you're sending is that our women do not matter, Indigenous women do not matter ... that if someone wants to target and hurt our women, that they can dump them in the landfill and no one will look for them," she said at the news conference.
"We will do whatever we have to do to look for our women to bring them back home."
Leaders from the Southern Chiefs Organization, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) and Assembly of First Nations also attended the news conference and are calling for Smyth's resignation.
CBC News asked for a comment from the police chief early Thursday morning, but there was no response as of 1:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, Smyth said he hoped to bring justice to the families, but reiterated the police are not able to recover the two womens' remains.
"I'm disappointed that we're not in a position to recover remains for for these other two victims, but the efforts that we make to work with the Indigenous community, particularly the vulnerable, is something that we put a lot of time and effort into," Smyth said.
That day, police said they wouldn't search the Prairie Green landfill because the women's remains are likely buried under a mountain of garbage, heavy construction clay and animal remains, and there is asbestos in the landfill, making a search dangerous for officers.