Today in The Conversation Canada, as the Manitoba provincial election gets underway, Frank Deer, Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba raises a concern about the moral responsibilities of leadership. 

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson has stated her government will not be funding a search for three murdered Indigenous women at a Winnipeg-area landfill due to safety concerns. But criticism of her decision has been growing. As an Onkwehonwe (Native) scholar who studies morality and ethics in communal and societal contexts, and as someone who experienced the Oka crisis of 1990 in his home community of Kahnawake, Prof. Deer calls the decision both callous and immoral but also, “alarmingly familiar.”

Yes, a landfill search would be expensive, yes, it may be risky and it may not yield the exact results wanted. However, the current trauma being experienced by the Indigenous families and the community is significant. He says, searching the landfill would help bring emotional closure to a traumatic situation. And he adds: “That alone should make the decision to search rather straightforward.”

Also today:

• How students are developing solutions to the problem of campus sexual and gender-based violence
• ‘Male soldiers can’t help themselves’ is among many rape myths that need debunking