Winnipeg mayor is supportive of landfill search for remains, Indigenous leaders say
CTV
Some Manitoba Indigenous leaders say Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham has offered support for a landfill search for human remains, but the province continues to be an obstacle.
WINNIPEG -- Mayor Scott Gillingham offered support for a landfill search for human remains, some Indigenous leaders said after a one-hour meeting with him Thursday, adding the Manitoba government remains an obstacle.
"I'm really happy that the mayor's office is trying to figure out ways that they can support the search," Chief Kyra Wilson, of Long Plain First Nation, said.
"And we don't know what that is yet, but we do know that they are coming to some sort of options, ideas, suggestions."
Pressure has been building for a search of the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill, north of Winnipeg, for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whose remains are believed to have been dumped there last year.
Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in those deaths and the deaths of two other Indigenous women -- Rebecca Contois, whose partial remains were found last year at the city-owned Brady Road landfill, and an unidentified woman Indigenous leaders are calling Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been found.
The Manitoba government has said it will not support a search because it would expose searchers to asbestos and toxic chemicals with no guarantee of success.
Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen reiterated that concern Thursday, and said he understands the families' call for a search.
