Global attention on Winnipeg as tension between police, demonstrators calling for landfill searches continue

The Winnipeg Police Service headquarters was shut down Wednesday morning after being covered in red hand prints.

Demonstrators calling for the search of two Winnipeg Landfill’s expressing their frustration after the arrest of a group member, as tensions continue to escalate.

On Tuesday, Tre Delaronde, a participant at both Camp Morgan at the Brady Landfill and Camp Marcedes, located at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, was arrested at the Forks, charged with two counts of uttering threats, mischief and unauthorized possession of body armor.

“I’m viewing these charges as absurd,” said Delaronde.

At Camp Marcedes on Wednesday afternoon, Delaronde says he plans to fight the charges in court, saying the charges are connected to a previous incident involving Impact Security, and feels they’re aimed at keeping him away from demonstrations.

“I think it’s a way to keep me away from the camps, because I’m fighting for the justice of our women, who are in the landfills, and speaking on behalf of the families who demand justice for their daughters, their nieces, their sisters at that landfill,” he explained.

After the arrest, camp participants applied red paint to the front of the WPS HQ, resulting in both station duty and record checks being paused Wednesday morning.

Police offered no further information about the incident on Wednesday, saying the investigation was ongoing.

The arrest comes as support for the landfill search continues to grow, with voices weighing in from across the country.

Part of a motorcycle riding delegation from Saskatchewan arriving Wednesday is prominent Cree Human Rights Lawyer, Eleanore Sunchild.

Sunchild says, “It’s important that our traditional laws, our Indigenous laws, are respected because they are still in effect and still in place in Canada.”

She adds people across the Globe are watching Winnipeg after the decision was made to not search the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris, and the Brady Landfill where the remains of Rebecca Contois’ were found.

The three women, alongside a fourth known as Buffalo Woman, all allegedly murdered by Winnipeg man, Jeremy Skibicki.

“I’m appalled the authorities aren’t searching for those women.”

Sunchild explained in Indigenous culture, the bodies of loved ones are sacred, both in life and in death, and must be returned home to their families.

She believes if the missing women were from the political leader’s communities the response would be different.

“If it was their women, their people in the landfill, then they would call in the army, I’m quite positive about that, but their women aren’t put in this situation, they don’t face the violence that colonization has created against Indigenous women, so they don’t understand.”