July 21 2023

The following is a joint statement endorsed by the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU), the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP), and the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

On behalf of the 425,000 NUPGE members, 32,000 MGEU/NUPGE members, and 7,000 MAHCP/NUPGE members, we echo the call of the families, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Assembly of First Nations, and organizers for a search of the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, and a search of Brady Road landfill for remains of other Indigenous women.

A feasibility study identified preventative measures that can be taken to ensure worker safety while searching the Prairie Green landfill. Furthermore, searches have been conducted at other landfills that have posed equivalent risks with no guarantee that remains would be found. CUPE 500, the local representing municipal staff at the Brady Road Resource Management Facility, including the landfill and 4R Winnipeg Depot in Winnipeg, and CUPE National have expressed their support for a search.

The province cannot pick and choose which Calls for Justice from the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls they engage with. Inaction is violence. Violence against the missing women, their families, and their communities, and it sends the message that the lives of Indigenous women do not matter. If the province is truly committed to ending systemic causes of violence against Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people, they must fund the search.