The progressive conservatives of the opposition of Manitoba apologized with the families of four women from the first nations killed by a serial killer in 2022 for refusing to look in a landfill in the Winnipeg area where the remains of two of the women were believed.
“The honorable speaker, our government made a mistake. It’s as simple as that,” said the interim leader of the PC, Wayne Ewasko, during the period of questions in the Manitoba Legislature on Wednesday.
“We advance and continue tips to emphasize the prosecution above all. We lost our course with respect to empathy and we also lost the way with respect to the closure of the families of the victims,” said Ewasko.
While in the government, the progressive conservatives, under Prime Minister Heather Stefanson, said the province would not help finance the search for two women who believe they are in the Prairie landfill, citing health and safety concerns for workers and the low perspectives of success.
The decision not to seek the landfill of Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, led to a generalized anger among the families of the victims, the leaders of the first nations and the members of the community.
An announcement administered by the PC Party before the provincial elections of October 2023, in which the PCs were defeated by the NDP, said: “For health and safety reasons, the response in the excavation of the landfill only has to be no.”
Ewasko said the party is offering an “unconditional apology” to families and that they have their word than the party “will be better.”
When journalists asked Ewasko if he apologized for the advertising campaign, the language used or the refusal to look for the landfill, he said it was a “combination of everything.”
Cambria Harris, a daughter of Morgan Harris, said she feels in conflict with the public apology, saying that no one of the PCs has contacted the family in private to apologize or discuss a complaint of human rights that she presented against the party more than a year ago.
“I recognize the apology that was made today, but you know, if it were not for those actions of the previous PC government, my family would not have stopped on the landfill today waiting for our loved ones to be brought home,” he told CBC.
“Sorry is one thing, but really taking responsibility and changing your actions to ensure that the tragedy does not happen again, it will say otherwise.”
Possible remains found
Morgan Harris and Myran, Breeh Originally from Long Plain First Nation, Were Two of the Victims of Jeremy Skibicki, Who Was Convicted Last July of Four Counts of First-Degree Murder in their Killings, and in the death Nation, and A Still-one identified Woman Who has Been Given The Name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders.
The partial remains of Contois were found in a garbage container near the Skibicki apartment in Winnipeg in mid -May 2022. More of their remains were found in Brady Road’s landfill administered by the city in June 2022. The remains of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe have never been found.
Police have said they believe he was indigenous and about 20 years.
During the 2023 election campaign, the NDP promised to look for the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of Harris and Myran.
The excavation work in that search began in December, and last week, possible human remains were found.
The families were notified of the discovery and spent the rest of the day in the landfill, Kinew said previously.
The next day, the families held a press conference urging the PC party to do better.
PCs must show that they have learned: Kinew
Kinew said that the work to seek the landfill has been respectful of families’ wishes, and has shown that looking in the landfill “was always feasible.”
“It remains to be seen if the progressive conservative party will learn the terrible mistakes of Heather Stefanson and will take them to those who advance, but again, it is up to them to show that through their actions now,” he said during the questions on Wednesday.
The PC leadership candidate, Obby Khan, who was a minister of the government cabinet while the conservatives were campaigning against the search for the landfill, diverted the questions about whether he agreed with the apologies.
“I think it’s a question for the current interim leader to answer. When I become a leader, I will have my statement in progress
Advance in that, “Khan told journalists.
“At this time our interim leader has spoken and his comments are clear about [where] He stays. “
The other leadership candidate, the business owner, Wally Daudrich, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Cambria Harris questions whether the apology of the party is genuine or an opportunity to “save the face” after the discovery of possible remains of last week.
“We are doing the work they said that initially could not be done from the beginning and my family was used for a political campaign … where they criticized the advertising fences in all the places that my mother was last seen,” he said.
“His words are only mere words at this time until I see actions and healing within us as a people, but also within a government.”
The interim progressive conservative leader Wayne Ewasko offered an “unconditional” apology in the Manitoba Legislature on Wednesday after his party, while in the government, he refused to look for a landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two women of the first nations that were victims of a serial killer, a decision that the Torso made part of the electoral campaign 2023.
