‘So much more than a grand chief’: Leaders pay tribute to late AMC Grand Chief Cathy Merrick

First Nations leaders are gathering in Winnipeg to remember Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Cathy Merrick, who died suddenly on Friday.

Merrick, 62, was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead after she collapsed while speaking to reporters outside of Winnipeg’s law courts on Friday afternoon.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the organization that represents northern Manitoba First Nations, is holding a news conference for First Nations leaders to pay tribute to Merrick.

Pimicikamak Chief David Monias says Merrick was a problem-solver who brought people together, even in death.

“She was so much more than a grand chief,” Monias said at the Saturday morning conference.

“That’s the reason why I nominated her [for the AMC role] — because she was the best person for the job.”

Merrick collapsed on Friday shortly after speaking to media about what she called “a gross miscarriage of justice” following the acquittal of a Manitoba corrections officer charged in the 2021 death of William Ahmo, a First Nations man who was an inmate at the Headingley Correctional Centre.

“She died doing what she does best, [and] for that I am grateful,” Monias said.

Merrick’s election as grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs in October 2022 was historic, as she was the first woman to lead the advocacy group in its nearly 35-year history. She was re-elected to the post in July 2024.

Merrick spent over a decade as a band councillor at Pimicikamak Cree Nation (also known as Cross Lake) in northern Manitoba. She later became chief of Pimicikamak in 2013, and was the second woman to do so.

MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee, who is also from Pimicikamak, says Merrick leaves “a big void” and that the people of Pimicikamak and the other 62 First Nations she represented are “at a loss for words” over her death.

“Our nation mourns today, as we have lost one of the greatest warriors we’ve ever had to come out of our nation,” he said at the conference.

Merrick was a strong advocate for Indigenous and treaty rights, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and for the protection of lands and waters, he said.

“She was strong, she was passionate and she was fearless. That’s the grand chief that I knew.”

Tributes for Merrick poured in from across the country Friday, including from Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Merrick is survived by her husband, Todd, three children and eight grandchildren.