Red dresses on crosses are displayed at the entrance of a makeshift camp near the Prairie Green landfill in Winnipeg, on April 27.SEBASTIEN ST-JEAN/Getty Images
Manitoba’s Premier says the multiyear operation at a Winnipeg-area landfill is making progress to find the remains of First Nations women disposed of by a serial killer but he would not commit to an independent inquiry into their murders.
Leaders representing more than 600 First Nations across Canada, along with the victims’ families, have urged Wab Kinew’s government and the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba to establish a commission that will probe how police and other officials handled the women’s killings in 2022.
On Thursday, the day after the women’s killer was sentenced by a judge to life in prison, Mr. Kinew said his priority is to ensure the landfill search is meeting its targets before focusing on any other measures.
“Bottom line: We are on track,” he said, explaining at an unrelated event in downtown Winnipeg that the high-profile search, for which the federal government and province have each committed $20-million, is set to start with a pilot project in the coming weeks.
“To be frank, we have not had time for a conversation around the issue,” Mr. Kinew said about the inquiry.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal handed the harshest possible sentence for the first-degree murders of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois, 26-year-old Marcedes Myran, 39-year-old Morgan Harris and a yet-to-be-identified woman whom Indigenous elders have named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman, to Jeremy Skibicki, 37, on Wednesday.
He will not be able to apply for parole for at least 25 years, serving four life sentences concurrently.
Mr. Kinew said he personally called the victims’ families and other community members who provided impact statements in court as part of the sentencing hearing. The next morning, on a Thursday run at the Assiniboine Park with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was visiting the city, the Premier reiterated the importance of finding the women’s remains.
Winnipeg police had located some remains of the last victim, Ms. Contois, at the Brady Road landfill in June, 2022, a month after the killer’s arrest. But the remains of the other victims – at least two of whom are believed to be buried at the separate Prairie Green landfill – have never been found.
Once the pilot on a test area of Prairie Green, north of the provincial capital, is completed next month to refine procedures and techniques, the search will target the 10-acre section that GPS information has revealed contain the bodies of Ms. Myran and Ms. Harris.
That principal phase of the search is expected to begin in October, Mr. Kinew said. Hiring for dozens of workers at the site has already begun.
But Cambria Harris, daughter of Morgan Harris, said the women’s remains should never have been left there by Winnipeg police in the first place.
“I keep telling everyone, and I even said this in my impact statement yesterday, that the police should have done its job two years ago,” she told The Globe and Mail on Thursday. “I want that inquiry, we all want that inquiry, because it will hold the police and everyone else accountable for their systemic failures.”
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, agreed. “Sadly, this is a reality faced far too often by First Nations,” she said.
An independent inquiry would address the conduct of provincial institutions and restore respect for families as survivors of gender-based violence, the chief added.
Superintendent Dave Dalal, who stood next to the Premier, representing Winnipeg Police Service at the event, did not comment on the matter.
In terms of sentencing, Justice Joyal said in court that he regrets the concurrent punishment is not able to adequately reflect the gravity of the women’s murders. The judge emphasized the current state of the law can only be revisited by Parliament, and all he could do is hope that an eventual parole panel will take “very, very careful note” of the evidence and the victim’s families.
Although previous amendments to the Criminal Code allowed courts to stack multiple periods of parole ineligibility – effectively creating consecutive life sentences of more than 25 years without parole – those provisions were deemed unconstitutional in a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2022.
Mr. Kinew would not say Thursday whether he will raise the issue of sentencing with Ottawa.
“I need to respect the judicial branch,” he said. Still, he added: “This person can never be allowed to see the light of day as a free person in our country again. I’m not entertaining exceptions to that.”