The Manitoba legislature is preparing for mourners to say goodbye to the first woman to lead the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and a fearless advocate for her people — literally until her last breath.
A book of condolences will be set up Tuesday at the foot of the grand staircase in the legislative building next to framed pictures of the late Grand Chief Cathy Merrick.
Her body will lie in state ahead of her funeral and burial at her home community of Pimicikamak Cree Nation, where she served as chief before being elected in 2022 to lead the AMC. Dates for her lying in state or her funeral had not been announced as of Monday afternoon.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Photos of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs former Grand Chief, Cathy Merrick, are displayed at the base of the grand staircase of the Legislative Building, Monday. A book of condolences will be set up there Tuesday while her body lies in state ahead of her funeral and burial at her home community of Pimicikamak Cree Nation.
Merrick died after collapsing Friday afternoon on the steps outside the Winnipeg law courts where she was speaking to reporters about two major court decisions: the acquittal of corrections officer Robert Jeffrey Morden in the 2021 death of Headingley jail inmate William Ahmo and the approval of a $530-million settlement for First Nation children in care.
“The chief medical examiner ruled it a homicide, yet today’s decision tells the world that the rights and dignity of First Nation people, and that a ruling by a chief medical examiner, can be disregarded without consequences,” Merrick said Friday of the verdict in the Headingley guard’s case.
“This decision not only perpetuates systematic racism, but also those who believe that they can act with impunity, they can act and do whatever they want to our people, and that’s not right.”
The class-action settlement affected 30,000 current and former children in care who had federal child-benefit payments clawed back by the province. Merrick called its approval “historic.”
“There’s a process there where they will be able to access the special allowance that should have been theirs to begin with,” the grand chief said. “Nobody had the right to take that away from them and to make them believe that they weren’t responsible.”
Premier Wab Kinew and Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville are scheduled to sign the book of condolences Tuesday morning. Details of when the public could sign the book had not been finalized as of Monday afternoon, a government spokesperson said.
The last time a prominent Manitoban lay in state at the legislature was in 2013, following the death of Indigenous leader Elijah Harper. The former MLA and Oji-Cree leader was renowned for his stand against ratifying the Meech Lake Accord in 1990. Harper died at the age of 64 and was buried at the Ojibwe-Cree Red Sucker Lake First Nation where he was born.
Hundreds of visitors from across the city, the province and the country — including the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations — lined up to pay their final respects to Harper and his family. His open casket was draped with the Manitoba flag and a ceremonial headdress.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak plans to pay her respects at the legislature and attend Merrick’s funeral. She expressed deep shock and sorrow on her passing.
“Grand Chief Cathy Merrick first assumed the leadership of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs at a critical time,” Woodhouse Nepinak said in a statement.
“We are all proud of her work mobilizing action on the health priorities of First Nations in all Treaty territories in Manitoba. We deeply admired her determined advocacy as she pressed for the recovery of the murdered women in the landfill and to support their families,” she said, referring to Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, victims of a serial killer whose remains are believed to be at Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg.
“We can best honour her life’s work by carrying her aspirations and vision forward,” AFN regional Chief Willy Moore said in the statement, calling Merrick “a true trailblazer.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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