Families of missing women deserve search for their bodies, special interlocutor says
A Mohawk official tasked with helping Indigenous communities investigate unmarked graves says the refusal by Winnipeg police to search for the remains of missing women whose bodies are believed to have been left in a landfill is a "breach of human dignity."
Kimberly Murray made the comment at a gathering of Assembly of First Nations chiefs in Ottawa, where chiefs plan to discuss how to respond to the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls.
Murray, a former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, was appointed by the federal government to serve as a special interlocutor to help communities search for the remains of children who were forced to attend residential schools.
She told the assembly one of her office's guiding principles is that families and communities have a right to know what happened to these children, how they died and where they are buried.
"And I think about our women, that the Winnipeg police aren't going to search for those remains, like that is a breach of human dignity," she said late Tuesday.
"Those families have a right to know," she said. "International convention says they have a right to know."
Earlier Tuesday, Cambria and Kera Harris made an emotional plea outside the House of Commons for police in Winnipeg to begin a search for their mother, Morgan Harris, who went missing in May and whose remains are believed to be in a city landfill along with at least one other missing woman.
Police have charged 35-year-old Jeremy Skibicki with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois, along with an unidentified woman who is known as Buffalo Woman.
Cambria Harris called it "disgusting" police won't search for her 39-year-old mother, and said she shouldn't have to beg for officials to act.
"We would ask every Canadian to consider how they would feel if it was their mother or daughter or sister or best friend whose body was lying at the bottom of a landfill. Would they not demand that she be found?" said Carol McBride, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, in a written statement Wednesday.
"We can't help but wonder if the Winnipeg police would have continued to look for Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran if they had been white."
McBride added that if police in Winnipeg don't have the capacity to do this work, they should look to another investigative body.
During Question Period Tuesday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller told members of Parliament it is "very puzzling to hear the news that this landfill will not be searched," saying he hoped to get clear answers from the city.
"Clearly the federal government needs to play a role in an area where jurisdiction is a poisonous word and continues to kill Indigenous women and children in this country."
The office of Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, who is set to address the chiefs' assembly late Wednesday, confirmed it had not received any requests for help searching the landfill.
Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth also said he hadn't spoken to anyone in the federal government about the matter.
The force's head of forensics spoke to the media Tuesday to provide more details about the decision not to carry out a search.
Insp. Cam MacKid said police determined it wouldn't be feasible given how much time has passed and how much has been dumped at the site, which is regularly compacted using heavy equipment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2022.
-- With files from Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the newest entry to space travel
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.