Miles Morrisseau
ICT
The chief of Lake St. Martin First Nation is accusing the Winnipeg police of failing to properly investigate the death of a 33-year-old Indigenous woman whose body is the latest found in the notorious Brady landfill in Manitoba.
Chief Chris Traverse challenged the police announcement Thursday, April 6, that Linda Mary Beardy of Lake St. Martin First Nation was not murdered, and accused police of trying to tarnish the young mother’s reputation.
His statements came just an hour or so after the Winnipeg Police Service held a press conference to say that Beardy had been seen entering a dumpster in Winnipeg but was not seen leaving, and that her injuries were consistent with being dumped into a garbage truck and carted to the landfill.
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“The [WPS] said that Linda crawled into the bin, insinuating she then passed out,” Traverse said. “This is discrimination against Anishinabek to make that assumption. Why haven’t the police made a release that there was a report of a man trying to dump a body into a dumpster earlier Friday morning of [March] 31? Why aren’t they sharing and acting on those tips? I think they are trying to avoid a proper investigation.’”
Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth said the investigation into Beardy’s death had been concluded, though toxicology results are still pending. He said it would be up to the city to determine when the landfill would be reopened for business.
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The landfill was closed on Monday, April 3, when the body of Beardy was discovered by staff at the Brady Road Resource Management Facility just outside the city’s perimeter. Winnipeg’s egregious history as the epicentre of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women had many people questioning whether Beardy was another victim of a serial killer who had targeted Indigenous women.
“It’s garnered a lot of attention and concern across the country,” Smyth said. “Investigators and WPS personnel, they’ve worked around the clock to try to find some answers here. In light of the attention that has been garnered, we thought it was important right now to provide an update to the public.”
The family issued a statement late Thursday, saying Beardy was the mother of four young children and was close to her family.
“Linda was our baby girl, a Mommy, our sister, auntie, niece, cousin and friend,” the family said in the statement. “She will always be truly, deeply loved beyond measure.”
The family said Beardy grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and attended St. Norbert Adult Education Center. She was a regular visitor to Bethel Tabernacle and Believers Church, they said.
“Linda was the youngest of five sisters who fiercely supported one another whether through caring for children or lending a shoulder of support,” the family said. “She was in constant contact with her family, and she was often active on social media. Linda loved being a mommy to her four children and they were her pride and joy. This is who our loved one, Linda Beardy, is and how she will be remembered in our hearts.”
The statement concluded by asking people to turn out for a march on Friday April 7, to “raise your voice for justice for Linda.”
Beardy was also among the hundreds of Lake St. Martin residents forcibly displaced by the government after flooding hit Manitoba more than 10 years ago, and Traverse blamed the provincial and federal governments for forcing her to Winnipeg.
After massive flooding in 2011, floodwaters were divert to Lake St. Martin’s land in order to save property in Winnipeg and protect non-Indigenous farmlands, Traverse said. All housing on the First Nation lands were destroyed.
The government eventually settled litigation, awarding more than $90 million to Lake St. Martin and three other First Nations affected by the flooding. Rebuilding has been ongoing but more than 1,000 people still remain displaced.
Traverse said Beardy’s death is also “directly related“ to the growing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“Canada continues to turn a blind eye while neglecting the need for funding to end this epidemic and to provide First Nations Leaders with decision-making authority regarding the use of this money,” he said.
“It will never be possible for Linda to experience or live in her newly created Nation of Lake St. Martin,” Traverse said. “Instead, she will be brought home in a coffin, like many others who never made it home. I extend my deepest condolences and want it to be acknowledged that Canada has failed to protect the rights of Anishanabek in this beautiful country.”
The Brady landfill has been linked to the death of another Indigenous woman who is among at least four linked to an alleged serial killer believed to have been targeting Indigenous women in the Winnipeg area.The woman’s partial remains were found at the landfill, prompting calls and ongoing protests from Indigenous leaders to shut down the landfill for a full search.
Members of Winnipeg’s Indigenous community, including family members of the victims, and the First Nations Indigenous Warriors created a camp at the landfill to rally support for a search and to bring attention to the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The camp is called Camp Morgan in honor of Morgan Beatrice Harris, Long Plain First Nation, who has been identified as one of the women linked to the alleged serial killer.
Smyth, the police chief, credited tips from the public with helping to put together what police believe were the last few hours of Beardy’s life. He said she was seen at a retail store nearby, then left the store and went to a nearby refuse bin at about 11:15 a.m. on April 3.
“She was actually observed to climb into the bin on her own,” Smyth said. “There was some activity observed within the bin, and after a short period of time, there was no further activity observed. But she was not observed climbing out of the bin at any time.”
The bin was emptied into a dump truck at about 2 p.m. and the load was transported to the Brady landfill, where the remains were discovered after the truck unloaded. Staff contacted police at around 3 p.m.
“An autopsy was conducted on April 4 and it confirmed that the injuries that the body sustained were consistent with that of a truck handling of the bin,” the police chief said. “You’ve all seen how trucks empty the bins. There were no other injuries that suggest any kind of foul play.”
Police are awaiting the results of a toxicology test, he said, but are open to further investigation if additional information surfaces.
“Those take time and those aren’t back yet,” Smyth said. “”At this point, investigators are still open to pursuing any other information that might come in from the public regarding any of Linda’s activity.”
A Winnipeg man, Jeremy Skibicki, is in police custody and has been charged with murder in the deaths of four Indigenous women in Winnipeg during a three-month period, from March 15, 2022 to early May 2022.
The women appear to have been targeted because they were Indigenous, their remains were put into garbage bins and they are believed to have been dumped at the city’s landfills, though not all of the remains have been found. Police said DNA evidence has linked Skibicki to the four women.
The first known victim, an unknown woman given the name Buffalo Woman, is believed by police to have been killed on or about March 15, 2022.
Harris, 39, is believed to have been killed on or about May 1, 2022. Two other Winnipeg victims have been have been identified as Marcedes Myran, 26, also Long Plain First Nation, who is believed to have been killed on or about May 4, 2022; and Rebecca Contois, 24, O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, whose partial remains were discovered on May 16, 2022, in the 200 block of Edison Avenue in Winnipeg. The rest of her remains were found at the Brady landfill.
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