A blockade on a road leading to the entrance at Brady Landfill has resurfaced in reaction to PC election advertising, regarding their pledge to not search another landfill for the remains of murdered Indigenous women.
The city says it is aware of the blockade and has opened the alternate route into the landfill as a temporary measure.
“However the court injunction preventing the blockade of the road remains in place,” said the statement.
The injunction had been issued back in July after the original blockade formed. Police officers were seen earlier in the evening, but later left. They tell Global News they are aware of the blockade, but couldn’t comment on if they would enforce the injunction.
The full-page ad, on Saturday in the Winnipeg Free Press, shows the words “Stand Firm” in large text. In smaller font is the phrase: “For health and safety reasons, the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.”
Protester Waabishkaa Miingnan says they were taken aback by the PC ads.
“That is why this barricade came up, it was motivation in the spirit to say that Heather Stefanson, if you’re gonna push a campaign against sister Cambria, against MMIWG, against search the landfills, then you know what, the warriors will stand here.”
Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the Tories took out the ad because the public and the media continue to have questions about why the provincial government refused to conduct the search.
“Government advised the families of what the decision was based on safety, communicated that out, and I don’t think there was an intention to have much more communication about it after that,” Goertzen said earlier in the week.
The Manitoba NDP has promised to move forward on a landfill search if elected, while the Liberal Party says it would cover half the cost for a search, if they are voted into power.
– with files from the Canadian Press