One day after a court-ordered injunction was served on protesters at the Brady Road landfill blockade the group remain. They are asking for more support.
Protesters showed no signs of backing down after a court-ordered injunction was served on the camp Friday evening, compelling them to clear the roadway leading to the Brady landfill main entrance.
External supporters of the blockade have supplied food and water to the people at Camp Morgan, but some are asking for more moral aid.
Wearing a dress adorned with red broken hearts to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys, Tracy Fiddler called those who support the red dress movement to the front lines.
“I’ve walked alone since carrying this dress. I’m here today at the Brady landfill wondering where my sisters are,” she said from the blockade Saturday morning. “You claim you support what’s going on…where are you?”
Fiddler sewed the dress to remember a group she says is forgotten, tossed to the wayside in favour of remembering women and girls who have gone missing.
The protester said she’s waiting for her sisters in red to join her at the landfill.
“Come help me,” Fiddler said.
Earlier this week the City of Winnipeg petitioned the Court of Kings Bench for an injunction to end the blockade and authorize the arrest and removal of anyone disobeying the order.
Protesters are calling on officials to search the privately-owned Prairie Green Landfill north of the city for remains of several missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Justice Sheldon Lanchberry authorized the injunction Friday morning, citing the need for operations at the city-owned Brady landfill to continue normally or risk health and safety concerns.
Demonstrators are still permitted to protest, but must not block the roadway, the decision noted.
The group had until 6 p.m. Friday to remove the blockade. Instead of abiding by the injunction served to leaders of the group, protesters lit the papers on fire and burned them.
City workers were seen near the blockade repaving parts of Waverley Street Friday morning. No marked police cars were seen throughout the day.
Protesters set up the blockade last Thursday after Premier Heather Stefanson said she wouldn’t support a landfill search for the remains of the women due to health and safety risks associated with the search.
The feasibility study found it could cost upwards of $183 million and take years to complete, with no guarantee any remains would be found.
Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller called the premier’s decision “heartless” while NDP Opposition Leader Wab Kinew said the province should work with families on a decision everyone can live with.
Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of four women, including Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whose remains are believed to be at Prairie Green landfill.
Protester Melissa Morrisseau isn’t fazed by the judge’s decision.
“An injunction has no weight in my world,” she said. “If I have to stand there, get arrested to make a change or to bring any kind of awareness for the betterment of our people of MMIWG then I will.”
Morrisseau, a Sixties Scoop survivor, said if she has no plans to leave the site, but if or when police come to enforce the injunction, they will not be met with violence.
“We are a peaceful group.”
– with files from Samuel Thompson and Katherine Dornian
Comments