WINNIPEG – A public inquiry into the horrific beating death of a young Manitoba girl was pushed back Thursday, amid growing debate over whether social workers should have their identities protected.
The inquiry into how the child welfare system failed to protect Phoenix Sinclair was scheduled to start July 4, but will be delayed until Sept. 5. due to the ongoing argument.
“Several parties have brought motions with respect to the publication ban issue. Seventeen affidavits, often lengthy and extensive with numerous exhibits, have been filed by those participating,” Ted Hughes, the retired judge who will preside over the inquiry, wrote Thursday.
“Counsel have requested a short additional period in which to adequately prepare. There is merit in the request. Reluctantly, I have decided to accede to it.”
Phoenix Sinclair spent most of her short life in foster care before being handed back to her mother. She died in June, 2005 at the age of five, after being tortured, confined and assaulted inside the family’s home on the Fisher River reserve.
Her death went unnoticed for nine months. Her partial remains were found in a shallow grave near the reserve’s dump in the spring of 2006. Her mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch’s boyfriend, Karl McKay, were later convicted of first-degree murder and are serving life sentences.
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Kematch’s trial was told child welfare workers would occasionally check on Sinclair but eventually decided all was well and closed the file. A few months before the girl’s death, one worker went to visit the girl but was told by Kematch that she was sleeping. He saw a sibling playing outside, appearing healthy, and decided not to pursue the matter.
Kematch and her boyfriend continued to collect benefits from the Fisher River Cree Nation in Phoenix’s name months after her death. Later, in a meeting with social workers, Kematch tried to pass off a friend’s daughter as Phoenix, the trial was told.
The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union is asking for a publication ban that would prevent any social workers from being named in the media. The union has said media exposure of individual workers would amount to a public lynching and make it harder for the workers to do their job
Lawyers for Winnipeg media outlets are fighting the application. Hearings on the issue were originally set for next week, but have been pushed back to July 4.
The union had previously attempted to limit the inquiry’s scope. It asked the Manitoba Court of Appeal to rule that the inquiry should not be able to examine how the system’s failed to protect Phoenix, because such deaths are normally the subject of provincial court inquests. The appeals court rejected that argument, and sided with government lawyers who said that inquests are limited to specifics of an individual case and cannot looking at systemic problems.
Once the inquiry hearings begin Sept. 5, some 100 witnesses are expected to testify. The inquiry will run four days a week until Dec. 20, and deal with a raft of documents that continues to grow.
“The commission disclosure list, which I indicated six months ago stood at 1,738, has now risen to 2,088,” Hughes wrote.
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