Leah Gazan, the MP for Winnipeg Centre, released the following statement:
"The dumping of debris on a mural honouring MMIWG2S+ is a vile act of racism that shows how the lives of Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people are constantly devalued. I stand in solidarity with the families who are still grieving their lost loved ones in the face of this disgusting display of hate.
Families are being abandoned by all levels of government who are failing to treat what Parliament has recognized as a Canada-wide emergency with the urgency it deserves. While the City of Winnipeg focuses on removing protestors, the Premier passes the buck on a search of Prairie Green Landfill and the federal government delays, garbage continues to be dumped on the remains of loved ones.
I can think of nothing more violent, nothing more hurtful to the families, than the fact that keeping a landfill open is viewed as a higher priority than searching for their relatives.
It is time for the federal government to step up and fund a search of the Prairie Green Landfill, which the feasibility study confirmed is possible. Words aren’t good enough; we need real action to address what the prime minister of this country has described as an ongoing genocide. Families deserve closure and they deserve justice."