‘We are not garbage’: #SearchTheLandfill calls grow louder country-wide
Global News
Calls for #SearchTheLandfill are growing country-wide after events held in Vancouver, Winnipeg and future ones planned in St. John's.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery Wednesday night to show solidarity with the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran whose bodies are believed to be in a Winnipeg landfill.
“Just seeing our loved ones and seeing Cambria Harris, the daughter of one of the murdered women, for over six months, on the front lines wanting to find her mother, wanting to get justice and there’s an outcry,” said Jerilyn Snuxyaltwa Webster, one of the vigil organizers.
“As Indigenous people on the West Coast, we stand in solidarity because so many of our loved ones go missing and murdered.”
Last month after Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not support a search of the Prairie Green landfill — due to cost, safety risks and no guaranteed success — calls for #SearchTheLandfill grew.
On Twitter the hashtag has been used in over 16,000 tweets in the last 7 days and a petition calling for the landfill to be searched has almost 60,000 signatures.
“They’re advocating, they’re standing on the frontlines asking the government, telling the government to clear the landfill … it’s appalling the government isn’t doing anything,” said Annita McPhee, another vigil organizer. “The most frustrating part of this, Indigenous women feel they aren’t valued while they’re alive, and even now they can’t give the families the peace they deserve.”
While searching a landfill isn’t easy, landfills have been searched before. In 2021, the remains of Nathaniel Brettell were found in an Ontario landfill after a several-month long search.
“We feel like its racially driven,” said McPhee. “Yes they say it costs too much money, its dangerous, but they’ve done it for others … you just have to look at the history of what’s happened to Indigenous women and you know we’re not valued in Canada and that’s the saddest part of this.”