Song and sorrow lead Cathy Merrick, the late AMC grand chief, to lie in state at Manitoba Legislature
CBC
Led by singers and escorted by pallbearers from the RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service, a white casket bearing the body of Cathy Merrick, the late Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs grand chief, arrived to lie in state at the Manitoba Legislative Building on Wednesday morning.
The song from the group of First Nations women — one carrying Merrick's headdress — echoed through the broad foyer and grand staircase of the building as they headed the procession.
Immediately behind the casket walked Merrick's husband, Todd, and the couple's three children, along with other family members, a number of First Nations chiefs and other dignitaries.
It was a slow, sorrowful walk as the casket was taken to the Chandelier Room on the second floor for a sacred private ceremony.
Public viewing is scheduled for noon until 5 p.m.
Merrick, 63, is the first woman given the honour of lying in state inside the legislature, and the first person to do so since 2013.
She died suddenly on Sept. 6 after collapsing outside the Law Courts building in Winnipeg while speaking to reporters.
A book of condolences for the public to sign has been placed at the base of the grand staircase in the Manitoba Legislative Building and flags at the building have been lowered to half-mast.
Merrick's death was marked by a vigil outside the Winnipeg courthouse earlier and a sunrise ceremony.
Former Manitoba premier Gary Doer, who showed up at the legislature on Wednesday to sign the book, said Merrick was a person of integrity and leadership.
"She had it all and she lived it all, and that's why there's so many people grieving her passing," he said.
Her body will be taken from the legislature to the RBC Convention Centre for a wake service from 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. It will then return to her home community, Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake), for a wake service at the arena on Thursday and Friday.
A last viewing will take place on Saturday, ahead of the funeral service interment later that same day at the Cross Lake Cemetery.
Merrick spent more than a decade as a band councillor at Pimicikamak and became the community's chief in 2013 — only the second woman to do so.
People continue to flock to Banff National Park.
Two Toronto councillors have brought forward a motion to ban raising foreign flags at Toronto City Hall and civic centres.
Thousands of Maritime Electric customers in multiple communities across Queens County are without power Saturday morning.
Three weeks into the conflict in the Middle East, the joint U.S.-Israel onslaught has killed much of Iran's leadership, knocked out much of its ballistic missile capability, sunk nearly all of its navy and, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, has "militarily WON" the war already.
Sometimes to understand the weather, you have to fly straight into it.
When he was a student at what was then known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Andrew Scott had a professor who regularly said that painting was something that could be done until someone dropped dead, while rock n' roll had a best-before date.
Almost a year after a Miramichi woman spoke out about how dealing with an insurance-related company left her in financial ruin, a watchdog commission in the province is formally warning people to stay away.
Getting a job is not the same as it used to be, a young job seeker told CBC Toronto at an employment fair in Oakwood Village earlier this week.
A teenage girl is dead after she was struck by at least one vehicle Friday night in Vaudreuil-Dorion — a suburb located about 45 kilometres west of Montreal.
There was a time when Manitobans used to consider Saskatchewan a rural, underdeveloped backwater.
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) found some reasons to celebrate the 2026-27 provincial budget, but it takes issue with the amount designated for the province's Water Security Agency (WSA).
The family of an Edmonton woman who died in Honolulu last year is pushing for Hawaiian authorities to re-open the case.
It was around this time in 2020 that everything changed.