RCMP told Ottawa it could offer advice on landfill search
Winnipeg police had said chances of finding remains of 2 First Nations women were low
A newly released document shows the head of the RCMP told Ottawa the national police force could offer guidance to the Winnipeg police on searching a landfill for the remains of two First Nations women.
As anger grew over the initial refusal by the Winnipeg police to search the site, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told federal deputy ministers about some of the ways the Mounties could help — including by sharing their experience searching the pig farm of serial killer Robert Pickton.
“This is in no way a detailed list or plan but it does provide an overview of some of what we can do in this space,” Lucki wrote in a Dec. 16 email, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act.
Winnipeg police had initially decided not to search the Prairie Green landfill, a privately run dump outside the city, for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whom they believe to be victims of a serial killer.
Jeremy Skibicki, 35, has been charged with four counts of firstdegree murder in the deaths of Harris and Myran plus two other women: Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman whom Indigenous leaders have named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.
Police had said searching the landfill for the remains of Harris and Myran was not feasible and that the chances of finding them were low, citing the amount of time that had passed as one reason.
Shortly before Lucki sent her email, Indigenous groups in Winnipeg had created their own committee to figure out whether a search was feasible, and called on the federal government to help. The Winnipeg police said on Dec. 14 they would be part of the committee.
On Dec. 7, Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth told reporters police had not discussed the matter with Ottawa. This week, Winnipeg police spokesperson Kelly Dehn did not say whether the local force asked the RCMP to help and declined to comment, as the matter is before the courts.
The RCMP confirmed Tuesday that Lucki gave the information to the federal government “proactively,” as neither the Liberal government nor the Winnipeg police had asked the Mounties to consider how they could help.
The RCMP “compiled information from within the organization in order to be prepared to respond to potential calls for assistance,” spokesperson Cpl. Kim Chamberland said in a statement Tuesday.
“At the time, the RCMP in Manitoba had met with community representatives, provincial and municipal officials and Manitoba Indigenous organizations to listen to their concerns.”
The daughter of one woman whose remains police suspect are in the landfill said the Winnipeg police should have reached out, “if they felt like they weren’t capable of finding these women.”
“I wish they would have reached out to the RCMP, the provincial government, federal, municipal — just anyone,” Cambria Harris said Tuesday. “It seems it comes down to not only what they claim is feasible, but capability.”
One of the ways the RCMP said it could help was by offering expertise from its investigation into Pickton, whose pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C., became known as the largest crime scene in Canada.
For more than a year, officers and experts scoured the property for women who disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, eventually finding the remains of several, after hundreds of thousands of DNA samples and exhibits were collected.
“While the search of Pickton’s property began more than 20 years ago, active and retired investigators who worked on the project could be made available for consultation by the Winnipeg Police Service,” says the document provided to the deputy ministers of public safety and Crown-Indigenous relations.
It added that roughly 100 archeology undergraduate students from Simon Fraser University had assisted with the Pickton investigation, saying “such a program could work with universities/colleges in Manitoba.”
Besides Pickton, the document suggested RCMP members who responded to the 1998 Swissair flight crash off the coast of Nova Scotia, where 229 people died, could be made available.
As for the site itself, the RCMP said thought should be given to having a bus provide daily transportation “as many inner-city citizens do not have vehicle access.”
Winnipeg police had initially decided not to search the Prairie Green landfill, a privately run dump outside the city, for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whom they believe to be victims of a serial killer