Protesters blocking the Brady Road landfill in south Winnipeg say their resolve is even stronger after a man shovelled a truckload of soil and debris onto an MMIWG mural near the blockade Sunday.
The blockade went up last week after the province refused to fund a search of Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two Indigenous women. The city ordered those blocking the roadway to vacate by noon Monday.
"Screw it. Who cares what they have to say? Who cares what they want? I'm not going to take no for an answer anymore," said Cambria Harris, whose mother's remains are believed to be at another landfill outside the city.
She said Camp Morgan — which has been at the Brady Road landfill since December— originally erected the blockade to "send a message," not to entirely block the landfill, which has two entrances.
But after the man's act on Sunday, she and others issued a call on social media for more "warriors" to join those on site, who said they're ready to keep rallying for change.
Harris said she wasn't at the blockade Sunday when the man in a black pickup truck dumped soil on the mural, but she saw the video of it happen, which she posted on social media.
In the video, the man is seen shovelling soil and debris from the back of his truck onto the mural, while telling protesters to "Take care of your own people." After someone responds [“we are, you fucking dumbass”], he asks, "Then why are they dead?"
Harris questions how he got past the security on site.
"Why are you so angry to feel like you have to take that extreme of a measure of a hate crime?" she asked.
"You don't realize that you're talking to an entire group of people who have been pulverized their entire life through systemic oppression."
"I'm outraged. I'm enraged. I'm infuriated," said supporter Melissa Morrisseau, who said she was at the landfill Sunday to help give a voice to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and their families.
"I'm here till the very end," she said.
Florance Smith was also there to take a stand with the families.
"They need to dig for our women," Smith said. "They just think that we belong in the garbage."
Harris said she believes the province's decision to not support a landfill search shows that the government doesn't care, and she now feels she's been disrespected by all three levels of government. She said it shouldn't have come to measures like the letter sent by the city, telling protesters to shut down the blockade.
"I've never ever understood it, why this kind of trauma is our fault," Harris said.
The mural, a red dress with the words "for our sisters" written on the skirt, was painted on the entrance road to the landfill, Ethan Boyer Way.
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But after they realized the soil the man dumped contained cedar wood chippings, supporters decided to put them to use by sweeping the woodchips in a circle around the mural, she said.
"Cedar's our protection medicine, and we decided that we were going to include it into our art piece and circle her in protection," Bousquet said.
"We turned an ugly into a beautiful here. That's what our people are known for doing."
For Bousquet, it shows how resilient her community is.
"No matter what you throw on us … we're always going to create something beautiful," she said.
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We... We literally have a thing called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that outlines our rights.
He makes it sound like Canadians live in some dystopian hellscape, lol
Tell me you know nothing about your neighbouring country without saying you know nothing about the neighbouring country. xD
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Canadian government for most of the 20th century: free access to pretty decent universal healthcare *unless you're indigenous or looking for psychiatric care in the 60s then we may potentially discreetly send you to a fake MK Ultra doctor who fries your brain
Canadian government now: yeah no we're privatizing this shit and if you don't like it go smoke some legal weed about it and if that doesn't cure you go legally kill yourself, your death certificate will have your preferred pronouns kween ♥️🌈
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i NEED specifically Americans and Brits to understand how evil and facist and white supremacist a country Canada is, and how horrificly evil and violent Trudeau/our govt is.
PLEASE ask me abt it you Dont Know i promise and you Need to
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Hey fellow Albertan's - instead of taking the government's whackadoodle survey which assumes you support their dumbass plan of pulling out of the CPP, take this one instead! Our official opposition are taking the actual first step of ASKING Albertans what they want and why.
@allthecanadianpolitics
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Dozens of people outside Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill have built barricades and are signalling their unwillingness to leave, despite a noon deadline from the city to vacate the area and the possibility of legal action.
Cambria Harris, whose mother's remains are believed to be in the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg, is one of the people who called for the blockade to be erected and for others to join the demonstration at the Brady Road landfill.
The blockade of the city-run Brady Road landfill began Thursday after Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not support a search of the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill north of the city, where the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were believed to have been dumped last year.
"When you say you won't move forward with the search, you're telling my community that it's OK and that you condone the continuous dumping of Indigenous women," Harris said in an interview on Monday.
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Harris's aunt, Melissa Robinson, said what's happening is not acceptable.
"We're talking about our women laying in landfills. You don't put a dollar on that — absolutely not. I don't care if it costs $200 million, $300 million, they need to go and get them. I'm not going to have my nieces go sit at a landfill to visit their mom for the rest of eternity. It's wrong."
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Some members of the group of demonstrators at the dump moved to the Leaf — a conservatory in Assiniboine Park, where Manitoba's premier is hosting officials from seven provinces — on Monday afternoon.
Carrying drums and a megaphone, the people named missing women and chanted, "We are not trash," while demanding Stefanson reverse her decision.
After speeches were made by members of the group, they left peacefully.
The remains of Sue Caribou's niece, Tanya Nepinak, are believed to have been dumped at the Brady Road landfill in 2011, but none were found following a six-day search by police.
Caribou wants to see all landfills searched for the remains of missing Indigenous women.
"We want our loved ones home. We want closure," she said.
"No human being belongs in the trash."
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