PV Saskatchewan Bureau
The City of Regina landfill sits behind a fence in the distance. About a kilometre away, the Regina oil refinery bleeds smoke into the air, while freighters and tankers speed past an encampment at the corner of Fleet and McDonald. Close to the intersection is a sign that reads: “HER REMAINS NEED TO BE LOCATED.”
The sign is a call for help to local authorities to find the body of Richele Bear, a Gordon First Nation woman who was murdered in 2013 by “Regina’s first serial killer.” But the sign has another meaning as well – it is a call to action.
Richele’s mother, Michele Bear of Standing Buffalo First Nation, says that her daughter’s body is in the Regina landfill. For two weeks, Michele has been on hunger strike in protest of the lack of response from Regina Police Services, Regina City Council and the Saskatchewan Party and Premier Scott Moe. Michele vows to continue her hunger strike until her daughter’s body is found.
“I have to sacrifice myself for justice – that shouldn’t be the way”
Family, friends, local activists and allies have been visiting the encampment to bring provisions like tobacco and water, set up tipis, and provide moral support for Michele as she searches for Richele’s body.
Richele’s murder is a symptom of a society that is plagued with a history of colonial violence. In a report released by Statistics Canada in 2023, over a ten-year period from 2011 to 2021 femicide accounted for 1,125 of reported murders in Canada. And even though Indigenous women are only 5 percent of the population, they are 21 percent of the victims of femicides in Canada at a rate of 1.7 per 100,000. It is easy to read statistics like this and overlook the fact that each number represents a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend or loved one that is no longer with us due to their gender and/or racialization.
The numbers also hide the horrific ways that the bodies of Indigenous women are discarded and desecrated. In western Canada, the use of landfills to cover-up the murder of Indigenous women has become too common.
Over a two-year period from 2022-2024, families and activists in Manitoba advocated for the search of landfills after the murder of three women by a serial killer. The actions culminated in the encampment known as Camp Morgan and the blockade of the Brady Landfill. After an injunction was issued, police brutally removed the encampment.
The pressure from activists, both locally and across the country, pushed the Manitoba provincial government to act. And in March 2025, the bodies of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris of Long Plain First Nation were found.
The situation in Saskatchewan is no different. In August 2024, the Saskatoon Police Service found the body of Mackenzie Lee Trottier at the City of Saskatoon landfill.
Given the history, it is not unlikely that Richele Bear is buried in the Regina landfill. Yet the Saskatchewan Party refuses to look.
Ultimately it is up to Scott Moe to give access to Regina Police Services to search the landfill. If the landfill in Saskatoon can be searched, so can the landfill in Regina. But, given how reluctant the Saskatchewan Party is to spend money on anything important, it is no surprise that their real concern is probably the cost it would take to search for Richele.
“They think Native People are garbage. Native People are not trash,” says Michele Bear. How long will it take for the government of Saskatchewan to act? How long will Michele Bear have to starve for this government to do something?
The time is now. Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan government need to make good on their word and “respond to the issues raised by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.” Michele Bear has been waiting 12 years – she deserves to lay her daughter to rest. “I believe there are other Native women buried in that landfill. I’m standing here for all murdered and missing Native women.”
When asked what she wants people to know about her struggle, Michele was clear: “I want people to know that this is what Native People have to do to bring justice for our people.”
Activists in Regina will continue to stand with Michele Bear until Richele is found.
Update: This article was written before July 11, when Michele Bear ended her hunger strike after 22 days. Tipis will remain on site for the foreseeable future. The fight against colonialism and the capitalist system in Regina continues.
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