Apology from PCs too little, too late

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/03/2025 (195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Honourable Speaker, our government erred. It’s as simple as that. We went forward and followed advice to emphasize prosecution above all. 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 Myron, Rebecca Contois and of Buffalo Woman. We will, as Elle Harris requested, be better as a party moving forward. And you have my word on that.”

— Wayne Ewasko, Leader of the official Opposition and interim leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party

With those words, spoken in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Wayne Ewasko attempted to put the stench of the PC Party’s platform in the 2023 election behind him, his caucus and his party. With a new party leader scheduled to be elected in April, it appears he was trying to ensure that the new leader would not be burdened by the party’s baggage from the past election.

If that was his goal, he has fallen short.

In the months prior to the 2023 election, it was widely believed that the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, who were each murdered by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, had been transported to the Prairie Green landfill site north of Winnipeg and were likely buried in a specific area of that site.

The Winnipeg Police Service did not search the landfill for the victims’ bodies and the former PC government refused to authorize such a search. During the 2023 campaign, then-premier Heather Stefanson said that “For health and safety reasons, the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.” The PC Party then ran ads, including billboards, that touted that refusal as proof of Stefanson’s ability to make hard decisions.

In other words, they tried to sell her hard-hearted refusal to search for the two Indigenous women as proof of her leadership strength and virtue when, in reality, it was neither.

The strategy reeked of racism, mixed with a craven form of political opportunism — and it is a key reason why Manitobans turfed Stefanson and her team from government.

The Tories have plenty to apologize for on the landfill issue, but why wait until now, 18 months after their election loss, to deliver that apology?

It would have obviously been best to have never sought to win votes by capitalizing on the terrible tragedy, but the best and most-obvious time to apologize would have been on the night of Oct. 3, 2023, immediately after the result of the election became clear.

That did not happen, however, suggesting the party was unrepentant for what it had done — and the failure to apologize at any time during the 18 months since then suggests that many in the PC Party still believe they did nothing wrong.

In fact, it suggests that the only reason they are apologizing now is because potential human remains were found at the landfill site last week. That leads to the inference that they were hoping the search would be unsuccessful, so they could claim they were right all along to oppose the landfill search.

The discovery of those potential human remains upends that strategy. It proves how wrong, how insensitive and how stupid their campaign tactics were — a conclusion that is reinforced by the long delay before finally making their apology.

To make matters worse, neither of the two candidates seeking to become PC Party leader — Obby Khan and Wally Daudrich — have issued a similar apology, nor have they indicated they agree with Ewasko’s apology this week.

When asked by reporters about that apology, Khan said he would comment on the matter after party members select a new leader on April 26, suggesting he doesn’t want his opinion on the matter to cost him votes in the leadership contest.

That’s how the party got into this mess in the first place — by putting cynical political calculations ahead of human decency — and it appears that Khan has still not learned that lesson.

In response to Ewasko’s apology, Marcedes Myron’s mother, Donna Bartlett, says “They want to cover their asses now. They want to try and get into the government again, but they’re not going to be able to if they don’t take responsibility, start thinking of the people.”

She’s right. Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives had 18 months’ worth of opportunities to make things right with the families of Myron and Harris, and with Manitobans, yet refused to do so. And, even now, it isn’t clear they genuinely believe they did anything wrong.

Viewed from that perspective, Ewasko’s apology can only be regarded as far too little, and far too late.