A small group of protesters remained at Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill Saturday, despite an interim injunction preventing them from blocking the main road to the city-owned facility that went into effect at 6 p.m. CT Friday.
“There are people on the front lines that are ready if the police come,” said Melissa Morrisseau, who has been at Camp Morgan — a protest camp set up near the entrance of the Brady landfill — for more than a week.
“Not violence or anything or aggression, but ready to make a stand to get arrested if we have to.”
Camp Morgan has been in place for months near Brady Road in support of calls to search of the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg. Police believe the remains of two First Nations women who they say were homicide victims — Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — were taken to Prairie Green last year.
The main entrance to the city-owned Brady Road landfill was blockaded on July 6, in response to the provincial government’s decision that it would not support a search at Prairie Green.
On Friday, Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery said while the protest is valid and protesters can remain at the site, the city must be allowed to operate the landfill and the roadway can no longer be blocked.
About a dozen people remained at the blockade on Saturday afternoon.
Morrisseau said it feels like at this point, only arrests at the site will bring awareness to the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and bring justice for the families of victims.
“If police come, we don’t want a confrontation — we don’t want a confrontation with anybody,” she said.
“But … we take directives from the family. Whatever the family wants, that’s what we do.”
WATCH | Protest continues at Brady Road landfill on Friday after injunction delivered:
A police liaison officer speaks to protesters blocking the entrance at the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg on Friday, July 14, 2023. The city served a court injunction to the group that evening, which gives police authority to arrest and remove people. Many at the site on Friday said they wouldn’t leave, as they set fire to the order.
People were out Saturday delivering food and water to protesters. Cars and trucks occasionally honked their horns in support.
Protesters have said they intend to remain peaceful, but also say they are determined to see a search of the Prairie Green landfill.
The Winnipeg Police Service has not said whether they intend to enforce the court injunction this weekend.
“We do not typically provide information regarding police operational plans,” Const. Dani McKinnon said on Friday.
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