New blockade goes up at Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill as protesters demand search for women's remains

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A new barricade has gone up at Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill, as calls continue for a search for the remains of two First Nations women believed to be in another Winnipeg-area landfill.

Protesters gathered on the main entrance road to the city-owned Brady landfill, at the south end of Winnipeg, on Wednesday, setting up a row of chairs in front of a car parked in the middle of the road.

 An "Every Child Matters" flag and a sign calling for a landfill search were also nearby.

Winnipeg police say they are aware of the blockade and are communicating with protesters.

Calls have been growing for months for a search of the privately owned Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg. Police believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — two First Nations women suspected to have been victims of an alleged serial killer — were taken to that landfill last year.

An earlier blockade was set up at the Brady Road landfill on July 6, after Premier Heather Stefanson announced her government would not fund a search of Prairie Green.

City of Winnipeg crews and police dismantled that barricade on July 18, after serving a temporary injunction a few days earlier ordering it to come down. A new protest camp was then set up near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

In the last week, the Progressive Conservatives — who are running for a third term in next week's provincial election — have been actively campaigning on their opposition to a search at Prairie Green landfill, which a feasibility report suggested could take up to three years and cost up to $184 million.

A full-page ad from the party in Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press highlighted Stefanson's opposition to a search, which she has repeatedly said would be too dangerous for searchers. 

Stefanson also raised the landfill search during the first opportunity she had to ask NDP Leader Wab Kinew a question during last week's televised party leaders' debate. 

Gerry (Gramma) Shingoose, an Anishinaabe elder and community activist, was at Brady Road on Wednesday. She said the blockade was put up again because of Stefanson's refusal to fund a search and the ad the PCs ran over the weekend.

"She's bringing harm to families. They're grieving. It's a huge loss for them," Shingoose told CBC. "Where's her heart?"

Shingoose said she doesn't know how long the barricade will stay up, but that it would come down if the provincial government committed to a search.