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

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

Kyle Klochko went to the Winnipeg landfill on Sunday to empty the back of his pickup and says he was unaware a group had blocked access.

He got into a heated argument with the protesters, screaming as he unloaded multiple shovel charges onto the ground over a mural painted to honor missing and murdered Indigenous women.

“I let my anger get the best of me, and as I drove down the road I thought, ‘You know what? I want to make this person as angry as he has made me angry now,'” Klochko said. CBC News on Wednesday, after protesters learned of his whereabouts and gathered outside his home just before 7 p.m.

Mud and other garden waste was dumped on the sidewalk and steps outside the front door of Klochko’s house.

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

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

They estimate there were 40-50 people 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 press release, they said officers must “balance the rights of individuals to gather and the need to ensure public safety and keep the peace”.

“The expectation of all citizens participating in such a gathering is to behave in a peaceful and respectful manner. Violence will not be tolerated.”

Someone livestreamed the meeting on Facebook, showing people screaming and cursing, directing their anger at the house and urging Klochko to go outside.

Klochko finally addressed the group.

“I went and apologized for my actions of dumping directly on the mural. It was not my intention to disrespect them in that regard,” he said in the interview with CBC News.

“But at the end of the day, I was mad because I didn’t have a place to dump.”

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

Rainey Raven, who organized the rally outside Klochko’s home on Wednesday, said she would not accept his apology.

“It wasn’t real at all. He was making excuses all the time,” she told CBC on Thursday. “He just wanted us to leave.”

She said that if anyone knew of Indigenous people who were missing or killed, she wanted Klochko to hear what they had to say.

“We’re making our voices heard,” she said.

Protesters want to search the dump for remains

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

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said the province would not support a search for 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 that searching is possible, and that not searching would have social costs as well as costs to families.

Prairie Green is located in a rural community north of Winnipeg and does not fall under the jurisdiction of that city. But the Brady Road dump, on the city’s south side, is heavily used and has been targeted by protesters due to its higher profile.

A city official said earlier this week that the blockade prevented maintenance work and put the city at risk of violating its environmental permit.

The city applied to the Court of King’s Bench on Tuesday for an injunction to order the protesters to move. The court will hear the request on Thursday.

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

“Cedar is our protection medicine and we decided we would incorporate it into our artwork and surround her for protection,” Diane Bousquet, the artist who created the red dress mural, previously told CBC.

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

“We turned an ugly into a beautiful one here. That’s what our people are known for,” said Bousquet.

This is the second blockage at the Brady landfill. Protesters previously closed off 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 after Morgan Harris who, along with Marcedes Myran, is believed to be buried in Prairie Green.

Harris’s niece, Melissa Robinson, posted a message on Facebook late Wednesday to say the women’s families disagree with the actions at Klochko’s home.

“So everyone knows that we as a family do not condone or support these kinds of confrontations. We understand that people are angry, but this is not the way to handle it,” 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 with the deaths of Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found last year in the Brady Road dump, and an unidentified female Indigenous leader named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been found.