Protesters target home of man who dumped mulch on MMIWG mural at Winnipeg landfill blockade

The man who dumped mulch and dirt onto a red dress mural painted at a blockade outside the Brady Road landfill says he regrets what he did.

Kyle Klochko went to the Winnipeg landfill on Sunday to empty the back of his pickup truck and says he didn't know a group had blocked access.

He got into a heated argument with the protesters, shouting as he unloaded multiple shovel loads onto the ground over a mural painted in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

"I let my anger get the best of me, and while I was driving down the road, I was like, 'You know what? I want to make this person angry just as much as he's angered me right now,'" Klochko told CBC News on Wednesday, after protesters learned where he lived and gathered outside his house just before 7 p.m.

Mud and other yard waste was dumped on the stoop and stairs outside the front door of Klochko's house.

The protesters also covered the door, fence and sidewalk leading up to the house in red paint handprints.

Several police officers sat nearby in vehicles at the start of the protest but moved into the yard, standing between the protesters and the house, after a window was broken.

They estimate  40-50 people were there at one point.

Police said a 19-year-old man threw a rock through the window and has been charged with mischief.

In a news release, they said officers "must balance the rights of individuals to gather with the need to ensure public safety and keep the peace."

"The expectation for all citizens participating in such assembly is to behave in a peaceful, and respectful manner. Violence will not be tolerated."

Someone livestreamed the gathering on Facebook, showing people shouting and swearing, directing their anger at the house and urging Klochko to step outside.

Klochko eventually addressed the group.

"I went and apologized for my actions of dumping directly on the mural. I didn't mean to disrespect them in that regard," he said in the interview with CBC News.

"But at the end of the day, I was upset about not having a place to dump."

The crowd eventually dispersed, and no one was hurt, police said.

Rainey Raven, who organized the gathering outside Klochko's home Wednesday, said she doesn't accept his apology.

"It was not genuine at all. He made excuses the whole time," she told CBC on Thursday. "He just wanted us to leave."

She said as someone who knows Indigenous people who have gone missing or been murdered, she wanted Klochko to hear what they had to say. 

"We let our voices be heard," she said.

Protesters want search of landfill for remains

Dozens of protesters have blocked the main road to the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg since July 6, demanding a search of a private landfill north of Winnipeg, called Prairie Green, where it's believed the remains of two First Nations women were dumped last year.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not support a search of Prairie Green, pointing to a study that said it could cost $184 million and pose safety risks, and success was not guaranteed.

The study also said a search is possible, and that not searching would come with social costs as well as at a cost to families.

Prairie Green is in a rural municipality north of Winnipeg and not under that city's jurisdiction. But the Brady Road landfill, in the south end of the city, is heavily used and was targeted by protesters because of its higher profile.

A city official said earlier this week the blockade was preventing maintenance work from being done and the city was at risk of violating its environmental licence.

The city filed an application Tuesday to the Court of King's Bench for an injunction ordering the protesters to move. The court is to hear the request Thursday.

Protesters told CBC News they were shocked, hurt and angry by Klochko's actions on Sunday, but quickly realized the soil he dumped contained cedar wood chips.

"Cedar's our protection medicine, and we decided that we were going to include it into our art piece and circle her in protection," Diane Bousquet, the artist who made the red dress mural, previously told CBC.

The protesters swept the wood chips into a circle around the mural.

"We turned an ugly into a beautiful here. That's what our people are known for doing," Bousquet said.

This is the second blockade at the Brady landfill. Protesters previously closed the access from Dec. 11 to Jan. 6, when they agreed to move off the road. They set up an encampment called Camp Morgan, which has been maintained ever since.

The camp is named for Morgan Harris who, along with Marcedes Myran, is believed to buried at Prairie Green.

Harris's cousin, Melissa Robinson, posted a message on Facebook late Wednesday to say the families of the women do not agree with the actions at Klochko's house.

"Just so everyone is aware, we being the family don't condone or support this kind of confrontation. We understand that people are angry but this is not the way to be dealing with this," she wrote.

"Camp Morgan is meant to be a peaceful protest, nothing more."

Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris and Myran. He is also charged in the death of Rebecca Contois, whose partial remains were found last year at the Brady Road landfill, and an unidentified woman Indigenous leaders named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been found.