MONTREAL: A Canadian man was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder for killing four Indigenous women whose bodies he dumped in landfill sites.
The case is seen by many as a symbol of the plight of Indigenous women in a country where they face disproportionate violence that was called “genocide” by a national public inquiry in 2019.
Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were raped, killed, dismembered and thrown out with the trash in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Police believe their remains are buried deep inside the Prairie Green landfill.
The partial remains of another victim, Rebecca Contois, were found in two places — a garbage bin in the city and in a separate landfill.
The body of a fourth, unidentified, woman in her 20s, is still missing.
Jeremy Skibicki, 37, was found guilty of all four counts of first-degree murder, Justice Glenn Loyal said in his judgment, adding that the accused was criminally responsible despite mental health issues.
The accused had the mental capacity to understand that the murders he committed in March and May 2022 were reprehensible crimes, the judge said.
As the verdict was announced, applause and cheers broke out in the court, including from the victims’ families, some with tears in their eyes.
“I’m flooded with emotions. I’m extremely happy and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Justice was served today,” said Jorden Myran, a relative of Marcedes.
Skibicki targeted Indigenous women he met in homeless shelters, prosecutors told his trial, which began in late April.
At the time of his arrest, the then-minister of crown-indigenous relations Marc Miller said the case was part of “a legacy of a devastating history” of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous women “that has reverberations today.”
Indigenous women represent about one-fifth of all women killed in gender-related homicides in the country — even though they are just five percent of the female population.
