Church leaders join calls for search of Winnipeg landfills

Representatives from a number of Christian faith groups lent their voices to calls to search Winnipeg-area landfills for the remains of Indigenous women.

Carmen Lansdowne, moderator of the United Church of Canada, flew from her home in Coquitlam, about 30 kilometres east of Vancouver, and delivered a trunk full of food to support the group at Camp Morgan, near the entrance to the Brady Road landfill in south Winnipeg. She also ordered a two cords of wood, paid for by the United Church, and had them delivered to the camp.

Lansdowne helped organize a one-day gathering of faith leaders at the camp, where members of the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran have based themselves along with supporters since December. They've been urging government officials to carry out a search.

Harris and Myran, along with Rebecca Contois and a fourth unidentified woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, are believed to have been killed by the same man. 

Contois's partial remains were found at the Brady Road landfill last year. The location of Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe's remains is not known.

Police believe the remains of Harris and Myran were taken to the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.

Calls for a search of Prairie Green have been growing since Premier Heather Stefanson said earlier this year she would not fund something that could take up to three years and cost up to $184 million, citing dangers to searchers highlighted in a feasibility report. 

"I wanted to make sure that the families of all murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls know that the United Church of Canada stands in solidarity with them, with these four women in particular," Lansdowne said in an interview.

Lansdowne, a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation in Bella Bella, B.C., about a 1,160--kilometre drive northwest of Vancouver, said there is little that separates her, as an Indigenous women, from the victims.

"It's important to me that the churches show up and that we continue to live into the words that we've said, as churches, that have apologized for our complicity in colonialism, for operating residential schools and for participating in the Sixties Scoop."

Lansdowne organized the event with help from members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Members of the Mennonite and Catholic churches also participated.

Michael Pahl, executive minister of Mennonite Church Manitoba, was among the dozens of people who attended the event.

"We have been called by Jesus to care for those who are considered the least in the world," Pahl said.

"We're called to love our neighbour as ourselves and we see this as really something that we can do as a church for that."

During the event, members of the churches and the families gathered inside the wigwam set up at the site, where they shared their reasons for coming. Several people, such as Rev. Paul Johnson, dean of the diocese of Rupert's Land with the Anglican Church, spoke about the role churches should play in the process of reconciliation.

"As Christians, we need to be standing in support of the oppressed, marginalized, those who are suffering, and clearly listening to folks inside the wigwam here," Johnson said. 

"There's intense suffering related to this issue." 

Cathy Merrick, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said it was important for the church leaders to hear from the families.

"This is a big thing for us to be able to have them come here and have them openly support the search for the landfill," she said.

During the event, Melissa Robinson, cousin of Morgan Harris, pointed out that the wigwam will be difficult to heat during the coming winter.

Lansdowne hopes that her donation of firewood will help inspire local congregations to step up through the cold months.

"And that people of faith and people of no faith across the country, continue to hold our government accountable, to treat Indigenous women, who are the most marginalized in Canadian society, with the dignity and respect that they deserve and that we continue to search for their bodies."