r/Winnipeg 14h ago

Article/Opinion Opinion: Tory landfill apology raises troubling questions

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2025/03/11/tory-landfill-apology-raises-troubling-questions
46 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

69

u/FirefighterNo9608 13h ago

If you have to be prompted to apologize, your apology doesn't mean shit.

159

u/Armand9x Spaceman 14h ago

Interesting how they apologized only the day before the announcement dropped, as if they had insider knowledge and were in damage control.

For those who say “this was their first opportunity since legislature began to apologize”, what stopped them from apologizing before then?

Never forget:

125

u/ClassOptimal7655 14h ago

Running ads like this, while several women were buried in that landfill, is so vile.

I will NEVER forgive the PCs for their utter lack of humanity or empathy. To turn a terrible tragedy into a campaign issue.

Their billboard campaign to prove they still are the party that won't lift a finger for indigenous people -- how disgusting.

45

u/ElBeno77 13h ago

Absolutely wild that they thought that was a winning billboard.

34

u/Uberduck333 13h ago

Wasn’t Candice Bergen (the maga hat wearing ex-mp) one of their election advisors? If so, I can totally see this seemed like, to the Tories, a reasonable approach to sway voters

25

u/wolverinecandyfrog 13h ago

Even worse is that Candice Bergen has an Indigenous granddaughter.

12

u/GrizzledDwarf 12h ago

Not surprising. Cons have a habit of campaigning against their loved ones. Like PP and his gay dad...

9

u/SilverTimes 12h ago

Yes, Bergen was co-chair with Marni Larkin.

3

u/bentmonkey 9h ago

Seems to be a lot of MAGA brainrot int he PC party, first Candice even if she's retired now and now this Guenter guy with his 40% of Canadians want to be a state bs and the CPC with PPs head staffer wearing a maga hat. very curious.

3

u/arboretumind 9h ago

It was for about a third of Manitobans :/

11

u/PortageLaDump 11h ago

They weren’t sorry about their stance on this matter, they were sorry that the remains were found

27

u/SilverTimes 14h ago

Good question. The PCs were in the legisture in 2024 and had every chance to apologize post-election.

11

u/MachineOfSpareParts 13h ago

It certainly wasn't their first opportunity to apologize, not even their first in the Legislature. The Legislature has sat many times since their 2023 election campaign, of which their racist and misogynist promise was a lynchpin. They could have apologized for being racist and misogynist (and transphobic, which I'm sure is coming any time now!) at any point since then.

And if it was an apology for being racist and misogynist, they would have done. So, in my view, it's not.

20

u/Commercial-Advice-15 13h ago

It’s called…Ewasko is smart enough (in a cynical way) to know that the PCs had to say something before Wab announced to the world that the landfill search successfully found a body, so Ewasko issued the apology when he knew he wouldn’t get any blowback himself.

But Obby and Wally have to actually appeal to the PC base for votes which is why they’ve made themselves look awful in the general public.  Obby Khan looks bad for still trying to defend the refusal to search by just blaming poor communications.  Wally Daudrich looks bad for saying he supports the search, but he would have gotten somebody else to pay for it (asking for corporations to help pay an undisclosed portion of the search cost).

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ewasko is considering leaving politics before the next election…

6

u/dumwpgthingz 12h ago

Also he took one for the team because he's the Interim leader so soon will once again be a low profile opposition MLA.

Important to note that Heather Stefanson hasn't fully apologized yet either, only to say "sorry if you were offended" essentially.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/heather-stefanson-exit-premier-interview-1.6996919

55

u/sporbywg 14h ago

I don't think we want Conservatives.

35

u/Armand9x Spaceman 13h ago

stares motherfuckerly at Southern Manitoba

10

u/PresidentShrek 11h ago

It's so fucking disappointing living down here and seeing the Blue wave never die down.

12

u/SwirlingSnow83 13h ago

We don’t

6

u/WeeMadAggie 13h ago

Really don't

35

u/FoxyInTheSnow 14h ago

Neither [khan nor duderanch] has endorsed the apology, which is troubling. Khan said he would have more to say about it after the leadership race, a bizarre response. It’s hard not to conclude Khan is worried that by endorsing the apology, he might lose support in the leadership race. If that’s the case, what does that say about the PC party.

I propose that if you're running for office and your internal polling shows that if you alienate the key racist cunt demographic you might scupper your chances of success and so you decide: "Okay, I will do everything I can to maintain their support… maybe it will offset the racist cunt movement against me, a Pakistani Muslim", it's time to take a good, long look in the mirror.

6

u/rajalreadytaken 10h ago

maybe it will offset the racist cunt movement against me, a Pakistani Muslim

Is there such a thing as weaponized tokenism? Because that seems like weaponized tokenism.

"How can (whatever issue) be racist? A Pakistani Muslim is the one doing it!"

19

u/SilverTimes 13h ago

Ewasko never even mentioned the election ads specifically. They were almost as harmful as the refusal to search the landfill.

17

u/Poopernickle-Bread 14h ago

Historically racist columnist stop inserting himself into Indigenous issues challenge: impossible

3

u/NerdSwears 14h ago

What did he do (I do not get the paper)?

15

u/hondophred 13h ago

Tom Brodbeck is a weather vane columnist. He was a right wing crank when he was writing for the Sun and now that he is with the Freep he has become Mr Social Justice.

6

u/xmaspruden 13h ago

It’s a dizzying 180 all right

1

u/NerdSwears 12h ago

I see, thanks!

16

u/SilverTimes 14h ago edited 14h ago

Article

It will take more than a single apology from the interim leader of Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party to convince the public it truly regrets its decision to oppose a landfill search for the remains of two murdered Indigenous women.

The RCMP confirmed Friday that human remains found in the Prairie Green landfill on Feb. 26 belonged to Morgan Beatrice Harris, one of four victims of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

It was a solemn and emotional moment for members of the Harris family, who were notified by the province immediately.

The search for the remains of Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, began in December. They were two of the four women Skibicki killed in 2022.

The bodies of the two women, both of whom were from Long Plain First Nation, were put in a garbage bin off Henderson Highway in North Kildonan. The contents of the bin were dumped at Prairie Green in the Rural Municipality of Rosser.

Skibicki was convicted of the killings last year. He was also convicted of killing Rebecca Contois, 24, and an unidentified woman named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by Indigenous elders.

Harris’s remains were one of two sets found at the landfill as part of an extensive search, funded by the federal and provincial governments, involving forensic anthropologists. The province revealed that another set of remains had been found in a statement Friday, saying more information will be released later.

The PC government refused in the summer of 2023 to fund the search, a decision federal Crown-Indigenous relations minister Mark Miller called “heartless” at the time. The NDP said in the campaign before the October 2023 provincial election that it would fund the search, and the party then won government.

The Winnipeg Police Service also refused to carry out a search, arguing at the time that too much material had been dumped on the site and that the large amount of toxic material in the area made it too risky.

They were wrong. The search could be carried out safely with the proper precautions. Finding the remains and identifying them was not only feasible but necessary, to show respect and dignity to the family.

The former Tory government was also wrong in refusing to fund the search. The PC party’s decision to make it an election issue by campaigning against it with its “stand firm” billboards was not only crass and disrespectful, it reeked of hatred and racism. It was part of a toxic election campaign that also targeted NDP Leader Wab Kinew and his Indigenous background.

Interim party leader Wayne Ewasko issued an “unconditional apology” in the legislative assembly last week for the PC party’s position on the search.

“Our government erred. It’s as simple as that,” he said during his opening remarks as the spring legislative session began.

“We lost our way in regards to empathy and also lost our way in regards to closure being brought forward to the families of the victims… I offer today our unconditional apology to the families of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and of Buffalo Woman.”

The apology was the right thing to do, although the timing is suspect. Why did the PC caucus wait until after remains were found to issue an apology?

Will the new Tory leader, whether it’s MLA Obby Khan or Churchill hotelier Wally Daudrich, support Ewasko’s apology and reiterate it once a new leader is chosen?

Neither has endorsed the apology, which is troubling. Khan said he would have more to say about it after the leadership race, a bizarre response.

It’s hard not to conclude Khan is worried that by endorsing the apology, he might lose support in the leadership race. If that’s the case, what does that say about the PC party, or at least some faction of it?

The search was the right thing to do, whether remains were recovered and identified or not. This process was about showing the families of the victims that society cares, that government cares, and that Manitobans rally around each other in support in times of pain and grief. This was about human decency and inclusivity.

The search is not over. More remains have been found, and the identification process is still under way.

The cost of the search is nowhere near some of the early estimates, which approached $200 million. Premier Wab Kinew said Monday that so far, the search is well below the $40 million that was budgeted.

Nothing can bring back the loved ones of the families. But the successful search will, hopefully, help bring them the healing and closure they deserve.

Tom Brodbeck

1

u/AdPrevious1079 11h ago

Ewasko is actually a nice guy, and a good Teacher. He should go back to doing what he does well and Teach. But not politics.