Elijah Harper’s body to lie in state at Manitoba’s legislature

The Manitoba government says Elijah Harper’s body will lie in state in the province’s legislature.

Harper, who as a member of the legislature blocked the Meech Lake constitutional accord in 1990, died Friday at age 64.

The province says the public will be able to view Harper on Monday afternoon and that books of condolences will be available.

Later that evening, a funeral service will be held at Glory and Peace Church in Winnipeg.

The burial service will take place Thursday in Red Sucker Lake, where Harper was born and was once chief of the Ojibwa-Cree Red Sucker Lake First Nation.

Jennifer Wood, a longtime friend who worked with Harper in Winnipeg and in Ottawa, said the casket will be open during the viewing and that there will be a Manitoba flag draped over a portion of it.

Wood said she believes Harper would have been pleased many of the people he worked with at the legislature will be able to publicly pay their respects.

“I know it’s exactly what Elijah would have wanted,” she said.

The Meech Lake deal was intended to win Quebec’s signature on the Constitution but Harper said it ignored aboriginal rights.

He was a member of the New Democrat opposition in the legislature at the time and the accord had to be ratified by Parliament and most other legislatures. His vote against it prevented it from being ratified by Ottawa’s deadline and eventually scuttled it.

Images of him in the legislature holing an eagle feather while voting “No” were printed and broadcast across the country.