Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Expresses Condolences for First Nations Woman Found at Brady Landfill
April 4, 2023
Treaty One Territory, Manitoba
AMC Communications
Treaty One Territory, Manitoba – The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) is saddened by today’s announcement that 33-year-old Linda Mary Beardy’s body was found at the Brady Landfill yesterday afternoon.
“On behalf of AMC, we send our deepest condolences to the family who recently lost their loved one,” said Grand Chief Cathy Merrick. “Canada, the Province of Manitoba, and the Winnipeg Police Services must implement more measures to protect First Nations women from the murderers who target them. Our First Nations women deserve the same human decency and gender equity enjoyed by all women of Canada. Why aren’t the governments implementing the MMIWG’s 231 Calls to Justice immediately? We are losing women every day, and it is shameful we have to come out looking in landfills for our women.”
New technologies need to be incorporated into these landfills. There must be proper screening and scanning of trucks with serial numbers, dates, and times that coincide with loads dumped at the landfill. Landfills must also track well-documented routes and timelines. AMC Calls on the provincial and federal government to better structure and provide accessible support to alleviate stress on the families as they navigate the search for loved ones. Governments should be allocating funds that are accessible to families in need of these services. We call on Canada to create a formal, structured, intergovernmental process of high-level Ministerial meetings with First Nations leadership to get on with implementing the Calls to Justice and the recommendations that have been made and ignored for decades.
For family members of MMIWG2s+, it’s been an egregious and strenuous time to search for and receive media coverage regarding their loved ones. Like numerous other First Nations families, In 2008, when Jennifer Catcheway went missing, her mother and father, Bernice and Wilfred Catcheway, had to beg the government to search for her with little to no support. Jennifer’s family funded the search through their own means without any financial support for gas, bus fare, childcare, searchers, volunteers, food, supplies, or any personal protective equipment from the government. Searching for loved ones is a full-time job, and the government does not offer families any assistance for expenses when they are unable to work due to searching.
The feasibility study report of the Prairie Green Landfill is expected to be completed in four to six weeks and we are confident the study will deem these search and recovery efforts feasible. The impacted families will have time to review and provide input before the study is released to the public. The Landfill Search Feasibility Committee remains dedicated to getting this study done thoroughly and properly for this search to get underway. We can then concentrate on the Brady Landfill next.
For more information, please contact:
Communications Team
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
Email: media@manitobachiefs.com
About the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
The AMC was formed in 1988 by the Chiefs in Manitoba to advocate on issues that commonly affect First Nations in Manitoba. AMC is an authorized representative of 62 of the 63 First Nations in Manitoba with a total of more than 151,000 First Nation citizens in the province, accounting for approximately 12 percent of the provincial population. AMC represents a diversity of Anishinaabe (Ojibway), Nehetho / Ininew (Cree), Anishininew (Ojibwe-Cree), Denesuline (Dene) and Dakota Oyate (Dakota) people.