Protesters agree to end Brady Road landfill blockade after city order

Protesters blocking the entrance to Brady Road landfill have agreed to end their blockade after the city issued an order for them to vacate by Monday.

The City of Winnipeg's chief administrative officer, Michael Jack, sent an email to Mayor Scott Gillingham and city councillors Friday saying he had issued an order to vacate to those blocking the roadway.

They were told they had to leave by noon Monday.

"The blockade is a violation of both City By-laws and provisions under provincial legislation, and is placing the City at risk of violating environmental licence requirements," the email said.

"We have determined that these actions constitute an emergency to the health and safety of the citizens of Winnipeg and users of the facility."

Protesters blocked the entrance to the Brady Road landfill Thursday afternoon after the Manitoba government announced it would not support a search at the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two Indigenous women, to the dismay and disappointment of families. 

The city announced the Brady Road landfill was closed Friday morning due to the blockade.

Joseph Munro, who has been involved with the protest on a service road near the landfill, told CBC in a statement that the blockade will be taken down before the city's deadline.

"It was agreed to shut down Ethan Boyer Way for a couple of days to send the Premier a message that her response was unacceptable," Munro said.

"We didn't want to close Brady Landfill. There is a back entrance that people can use. They decided to close the landfill," he added.

A blockade also closed Brady Road landfill from Dec. 11 to Jan. 6, which ended up costing the city just over $1.5 million.

He added he and his group, dubbed Camp Morgan, who have been on site at the landfill since December to bring awareness to the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women, doesn't believe the premier has even read the feasibiity study for the Prairie Green landfill in completion. 

In a statement Thursday, a government spokesperson wrote that Premier Stefanson had been briefed, had gone through and "was familiar" with the entirety of the report, in response to a CBC query of whether she had read it. 

Camp Morgan has been on site at the Brady Landfill for more than seven months in protest of the way the Winnipeg Police Service investigated cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls after police found partial remains of Rebecca Contois at the city-run landfill in June.

Jeremy Skibicki faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Contois and three other women, including Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whose remains police believe ended up at Prairie Green landfill. The fourth victim's location, known as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe or Buffalo Woman is not known.