The London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC) has officially launched its 14th annual Shine the Light on women’s abuse campaign as calls for services rise to a new high in the region.
Within the last year, LAWC reported more than 11,700 service interactions, including 7,716 service calls and more than 4,000 individual counselling group urgent support interactions.
“These numbers are the highest that they’ve ever been,” said Jennifer Dunn, executive director of LAWC. “This also proves why we need a campaign like this for conversations to continue happening and awareness to be raised.”
This year’s campaign focuses not only on intimate partner violence, but also on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit individuals.
“It’s so important for us to talk about different types of male violence against women and girls over each year of the campaign, so that the public has an awareness of everything that happens,” Dunn said. “The goals of the campaign are to raise awareness, to stand shoulder to shoulder with women that have been abused, to let them know that there are people with them that support them, and there is help available when they’re ready.
“It’s not for them to feel the shame and blame that they feel, that should be on the shoulders of the perpetrator.”
The 2023 campaign honours Renée Kowalchuk and 39-year-old Morgan Harris, who was murdered along with three other Indigenous women, allegedly by a serial killer.
The remains of Harris as well as Marcedes Myran are believed to have been dumped at the Prairie Green Landfill in Winnipeg. Police suspect that their remains were left in a garbage bin three days apart in early May 2022, and the contents of the dumpster were sent to the landfill.
Jeremy Skibicki, 35, faces first-degree murder charges in their deaths as well as for the death of Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found last year at another landfill, and an unidentified woman who is being called Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been found.
Cambria Harris, Morgan’s daughter, travelled to London, Ont., on Friday to share her story and to honour her mother.
“On Dec. 1, 2022, it was announced that my mother had fallen victim to a homicide to a serial killer who also murdered three others…. Four women mercilessly stolen from our families, forever changing us,” she said. “My life changed overnight, forever, in an instant. A grief I have to carry for life, longing for the life of which I lost.
“We live in a black-and-white society, where it is far too normalized to watch Indigenous women go missing and murdered each and every single day.”
Despite pleas, protests and outcry from the Indigenous community, former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson said earlier this year, after meeting with some relatives of the slain women, that the province would not support a search of the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of Harris and Myran due to cost, safety risks and no guaranteed success.
“We understand the desire to leave no stone unturned. However, the search process described in the report is complex, and comes with long-term human health and safety concerns that simply cannot be ignored,” Stefanson said in a written statement.
The resolution slammed the “failures” at all levels of government, as well as law enforcement, to adequately search for and recover the remains of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“The city is still continuing to dump trash around the surrounding areas and continue to profit off of the grounds of which my mother’s body lays in,” Harris told Global News.
The federal government funded a study that concluded a canvass of the Prairie Green Landfill is feasible, however, no action has been taken in initiating a search.
The calls to #SearchTheLandfill grew louder as vigils and events were held across the county, along with a blockade of the Winnipeg landfill.
Harris, who’s been on the front lines in talks with the municipal, provincial and federal government in seeking justice for her family, said “it’s disheartening to know that they have acknowledged that remains are there with the landfill, but nothing is happening.”
She noted the PC campaign ads during Manitoba’s provincial election earlier this month that touted the party’s opposition to searching a landfill for the remains of missing women, which were condemned by families and supporters.
“In early October, the PC government launched a smear campaign against my family’s wishes, saying that ‘the answer on landfill dig just has to be no,’” Harris told Global News. “They advertised that and blasted it all over the city. This is the kind of racism we face from the government, and it shows just what kind of colonial violence we also face as Indigenous people.”
Following the election campaign, Manitoba voters made history as NDP Leader Wab Kinew became the first premier of First Nations descent in a Canadian province.
Kinew, in his first speech as premier, vowed to work more closely with Indigenous leadership in the province.
“There is a structural change we are bringing into government today,” Kinew said at the swearing-in ceremony Wednesday.
“Our government will recognize you for what you are: leaders of governments.”
Following the provincial election, Harris said she had a renewed sense of hope as the federal government also committed $740,000 toward further assessing the scope of the landfill search.
But when it comes to the murdered and missing lives of Indigenous women, she says advocacy and awareness needs to shine brighter.
“It’s about realizing that these women are not just a story, they are human beings,” Harris said. “There was someone who was cherished and someone who was endlessly loved … so don’t just look at the statistics, look at the person.
“Most importantly, get involved and be informed,” she continued. “Whether it’s just listening or simply acknowledging what is happening to women in Canada, Indigenous women in Canada. It’s just understanding the kind of violence we face.”
With regard to the Shine the Light campaign, Harris added that to be welcomed and to have LAWC and the community honour her mother is “amazing.”
“It’s amazing to know that there’s all these strangers around the world who didn’t know Morgan personally, but continue to share her name and her story,” she said. “They don’t look at the struggles she faced but they see her as a person and for me to come down here to London Abused Women’s Centre is an absolute honour for me in also being a survivor myself.”
Through the 14th annual campaign, LAWC is also honouring Harris’s mother as another silent witness.
“Each silent witness that we have here at our office represents a woman who was murdered as a result of femicide,” Dunn said. “Although silent in voice, the silhouette stands as a silent witness screaming to end violence.”
The silhouette in honour of Morgan Harris reads:
Morgan Harris, 39.
Long Plain First Nation, MB.
Mother of five, who loved her children and family. Morgan is remembered as a bright and loving soul with a smile like no other.
She wouldn’t hesitate to help others in need, even when she needed help the most. Everyone who met Morgan always remembered her,
Morgan fell victim to a homicide by a serial killer as well as three other Indigenous women. Morgan currently lays in the Prairie Green Landfill, in Winnipeg, MN., until the government decides to search for her remains.
Morgan was a human being, a mother, cousin, and sister, who was and is loved.
#SearchTheLandfills.
“I think it’s important for us to highlight Morgan’s story for the Shine the Light on women abuse campaign because it’s really important for the community to be aware that these types of things are happening,” Dunn said. “It is absolutely not OK that Morgan Harris and other women are in a landfill. Their lives deserved more than that.
“We want to make sure that the public is aware that this is happening and hopefully that puts pressure on all levels of government to make a difference, make a change, and do something to support Indigenous women and girls.”
Dunn stressed that through the launch of the campaign, the number of service calls LAWC receives “always grows.”
“That is because of awareness,” she said. “When we first opened our doors, back in 1983, we provided services to maybe 200 women and girls a year. Now, it’s well over that.
“But what we’ve also noticed is that that increase doesn’t come back down, it usually stays the same,” Dunn continued. “Women and girls deserve more, and they deserve to know that they’re not alone and as an organization, what we really want to do is remain completely accessible for them when they’re ready.”
LAWC is inviting the community to Victoria Park on Nov. 1 at 5:30 p.m. to light of the Tree of Hope and to wear purple on Nov. 15.
For more information, visit the LAWC website.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual or gender-based violence, contact LAWC at 519-432-2204 or the Abused Women’s Helpline at 519-642-3000.
– with files from Global News’ Haley Lewis, Iris Dyck, and Sam Thompson.