#Police chief Danny Smyth Should resign

[coochiequeens]

Operations have paused at a Canadian landfill where the bodies of at least two Indigenous victims of an alleged serial killer are believed to be buried, amid mounting frustration that authorities are not doing enough to recover the bodies.

Police in Winnipeg announced last week they had charged Jeremy Skibicki, 35, with the murder of Morgan Beatrice Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, of Long Plain First Nation, months after he was accused of killing Rebecca Contois, 24, from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation.

He was also charged in the death of a fourth unidentified victim, to whom the local Indigenous community have given the name Buffalo Woman(Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe).

Earlier this week, police said they believed the remains of Harris and Myran were buried in the Prairie Green landfill, but ruled out a recovery of the bodies, saying that the size of the site and lack of resources made the task unfeasible.

On Thursday afternoon, the Manitoba premier, Heather Stefanson, and the Winnipeg mayor, Scott Gillingham, told reporters the landfill has temporarily stopped accepting garbage at the request of officials, raising the prospect that a search could be possible.

Stefanson said it was important to “take this pause, and we get this right”.

Police chief Danny Smyth said that while Contois’s body was recovered from another landfill, the scale of the Prairie Green Landfill would complicate any search efforts. He said that since the bodies were probably placed in the landfill in March, nearly 10,000 truckloads of garbage have been dumped, and that trash at the landfill is compacted with 12 metres of heavy mud. Smyth also said investigators have no clear starting point to search the sprawling facility.

But Indigenous leaders say police are not doing enough, and called on Smyth to resign.

“This search is feasible and similar efforts have succeeded in the past despite even more obstacles,” the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs grand chief, Kathy Merrick, said. “How do you look these young girls in the eyes and tell them you’re sorry, but you won’t even attempt to recover their mothers who fell victim to a serial killer?”

On Thursday, the chief of Long Plain First Nation, where Harris and Myran were from, also joined calls for the Smyth’s resignation

“The message you are sending to the greater community, to the non-Indigenous community is that Indigenous women don’t matter and that if someone wants to target or hurt our women they can dump them in the landfill and no one will look for them,” said Kyra Wilson. “Right now we have two young girls that have asked and begged for their mother to be found, to be brought home.”

Cambria and Kera, the daughters of Morgan Harris, have become outspoken critics of how police have handled the situation.

“You are telling us we don’t matter and you are still dropping trash on top of us like we don’t matter, and that’s disgusting,” Cambria told reporters.

Kera said the families wanted a “reasonable comprise” but had not yet received an acknowledgment from police.

“Not only have you refused to search these landfills, you have presented no alternative routes for how we can give these women peace.”

[newsfromstolenland]

"Manitoba First Nations leaders are calling for the resignation of Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), alongside Long Plain First Nation Chief Kyra Wilson, called for Smyth to step down Thursday, due to the police service’s refusal to search the Prairie Green Landfill for remains of three victims of an alleged serial killer.

Smyth has said that the remains are likely in the landfill north of the city, but that no search is planned, due in part to the amount of time that has passed and the fact that there’s no known starting point for a search.

The manager of the site has also said a search would be difficult at the private landfill, due to the constant movement at the site, but said the company is cooperating fully with police and expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

Police said 10,000 truckloads of refuse were dumped in the area since May, when the murders of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and an unidentified victim, who is being referred to as Buffalo Woman (Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe), are believed to have taken place. Trash at the landfill is also compacted with heavy mud at a depth of about 12 metres.

In an interview with 680 CJOB’s The Start on Thursday morning, prior to the call for his resignation, Smyth said the ability to search the landfill is outside of police expertise.

“The circumstances at Prairie Green are way different than Brady (Road Landfill),” the police chief said.

“Brady was within our skills. Prairie Green is not — it would be closer to a very hazardous archaeological dig, and that’s not a skill that we have.”

Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths. He was previously charged with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found earlier this year at the Brady Road landfill.

“Many communities, organizations, and public leaders across the nation, are asking for a thorough search to be conducted at the Prairie Green landfill,” Long Plain First Nation, the home community of both Harris and Myran, said in a statement Thursday.

“The families of the three women deserve to have closure. Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe deserve better. Leadership will continue to advocate to have them found and brought back to their home fires.”

Long Plain’s Wilson will appear with AMC Grand Chief Cathey Merrick at a news conference in Ottawa, where Indigenous leaders and families of the victims have been calling for federal assistance with the situation in recent days, on Thursday."

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To be clear, police chief Danny Smyth is refusing to search for the bodies of three Indigenous women who are victims of a (for legal reasons, alleged) serial killer, despite knowing that they are likely there. If the women in question were white, they would be searching that landfill by now. No question.

Their names are Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and an unidentified woman who is being referred to as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (meaning: buffalo woman).

We should all be outraged.

tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics