A blockade at the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg erected to protest a decision not to search for the remains of two Indigenous women has been taken down.
Winnipeg police were at the site of the Brady Road landfill blockade Tuesday morning while workers with front-end loaders and other machinery tore down the barricade set up nearly two weeks ago.
Insp. Gord Spado said crews and police showed up just after 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday to begin removing materials after speaking with Joe Munro, the de facto leader of the group.
Spado told reporters during a Tuesday press conference Munro recognized “the time had probably come” to dismantle the blockade.
“I was very happy with today’s outcome,” he told reporters.
Units were at the site on Friday ready to tear the barrier down but “emotions were high” the inspector said.
As crews moved in Tuesday morning protesters removed items from the roadway they wanted to keep and were cooperative, Spado said.
Moments after the conference ended a demonstrator said the protest is far from over.
“We’ll block railways, we’ll block highways,” Harrison Powder told reporters.
“This is bigger than us here.”
Powder demanded Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller step in and called Premier Heather Stefanson “useless.”
A Court of Kings Bench judge granted a temporary injunction last Friday to end the blockade after the City of Winnipeg said the barrier posed environmental and safety risks related to garbage collection.
Protesters erected the barrier after Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not support a search of the privately-owned Prairie Green landfill north of the city for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, believed to be killed by Jeremy Skibicki.
The issue was further politicized last week when Miller said the way Stefanson handled the blockade was “heartless.” Stefanson fired back at the minister, calling his criticism “inflammatory.”
Mayor Scott Gillingham said while he’s glad the blockade was removed without incident, a clear path forward is needed.
“The families of the deceased are stuck between … senior levels of government,” Gillingham told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg.
The mayor said the city’s part in the search of the Prairie Green landfill is limited because it falls outside municipal boundaries.
Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of four women, including Harris, Myran, Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found last year at Brady Road, and an unidentified woman Indigenous leaders are calling Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been found.
The injunction said while protesters can’t block the roadway, they can stay at the site.
Protesters said in addition to keeping Camp Morgan set up — the camp erected at the Brady landfill in December — they will establish another camp, dubbed Camp Marcedes, at the grounds of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
– with files from the Canadian Press