Blockade dismantled at Winnipeg landfill

A blockade is down at a Winnipeg landfill where demonstrators have been demanding a different landfill be searched for the remains of two Indigenous women.

A blockade is down at a Winnipeg landfill where demonstrators have been demanding a different landfill be searched for the remains of two Indigenous women.

Workers with front-end loaders and other machinery, along with police, arrived at the landfill Tuesday morning to begin taking apart the blockade.

Dozens of protesters have blocked the main road to the Brady Road landfill for nearly two weeks, after Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not search the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill, north of the city, for the remains of two slain Indigenous women.

A Manitoba judge granted a temporary injunction to end the blockade at the Brady Road landfill Friday after the City of Winnipeg argued in court it was causing environmental and safety risks. A city official posted the court order, stapled to a wooden board, at the blockade later that evening.

The judge had said demonstrators could continue to protest at the Brady Road landfill but they could not block the road. They can hand out materials and talk with people passing by, he added.

The Manitoba and federal governments have been sparring over the landfill search.

Stefanson cited safety risks as her main reason for opposing a search of the Prairie Green landfill. She pointed to a federally funded study that said a search could cost up to $184 million, expose workers to toxic material and have no guarantee of success.