Leaders of four national churches are joining the growing chorus of voices calling on the Manitoba government to search the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of three Indigenous women.
In a statement Monday afternoon, leaders from the United Church of Canada, Presbyterian Church in Canada, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Anglican Church of Canada said they will be meeting with family members and Indigenous leaders on Sept. 5 to show their support.
Rev. Susan Johnson, national bishop with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, says missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is an issue all of the churches feel strongly about.
“The leaders of the four churches all have women leaders at this time,” Johnson told 680 CJOB, “so this issue is particularly important to us as women church leaders.
“Our first step is to talk to the people involved. We want to be there to give support and to honour the women who are assumed to be murdered and buried in the landfill.
“Our task after that will include … advocacy work.”
Johnson said the first step for the group — which also includes Revs. Carmen Lansdowne, Mary Fontaine, Chris Harper and Murray Still — is to meet with family members of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whose remains are believed to be in the Prairie Green Landfill, at Camp Morgan outside Brady Road Landfill next week.
The churches wouldn’t be holding themselves to reconciliation without speaking out on this issue, she said.
“It’s time to continue to make strong statements and to ask for action.”
Premier Heather Stefanson has been steadfast in her refusal to move forward with a search, citing safety reasons — a decision that has resulted in numerous demonstrations, including a two-week-long blockade.
With a provincial election on the horizon, leaders of both the Opposition NDP and Manitoba Liberals have expressed their parties’ desires to have the landfill searched, if elected.
Support for a search has continued to grow in recent months, with groups across the country — most recently the Canadian wing of Amnesty International — expressing solidarity with the women’s families.
A Winnipeg man faces first-degree murder charges in connection with the three women’s deaths, as well as that of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois, whose body was found in the Brady landfill last year.