WINNIPEG – Despite a history of violence and abuse and a complete disinterest in being a parent, child welfare workers hoped Samantha Kematch could regain custody of her daughter, Phoenix Sinclair, an inquiry was told Friday.
“We’re a bit in the business of hope and the idea that people can get help for some of the issues that plague them … that we can help people to be their best and to perhaps give a shot at parenting at some point, with the right supports,” Marnie Saunderson testified.
The inquiry is examining how the child welfare system failed to protect Phoenix from being abused, neglected and finally beaten to death by Kematch and Kematch’s boyfriend, Karl McKay, when she was five years old.
Phoenix spent most of her short life in foster care and was killed a few months after social workers returned her to Kematch and closed her file.
Saunderson was the social worker who seized Phoenix a few days after her birth in April, 2000. She told the inquiry the decision was made in part because of Kematch’s troubled past. Kematch had herself been abused by her mother, had run away from foster homes, had hung out with gang members and had stolen cars.
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Kematch gave birth to Phoenix at 18, and showed little interest in parenting the girl. She had given birth to a son two years earlier, who had been seized by child and family services. Kematch told another social worker, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, that her son had been taken because workers feared she would hurt him.
Kematch’s story was not unusual for someone in the child welfare system, Saunderson testified.
“Often those children turn out to be fairly angry teenagers or people who are struggling with their emotions, and so I would say Ms. Kematch’s … file, sadly, is fairly typical.”
Saunderson managed the file for just three days. She discovered she was related to someone involved in the case and declared a conflict of interest. The file was handed over to another worker and would be managed by many different workers over the next four years.
The inquiry has yet to delve into a key question: why was Phoenix handed back to Kematch in 2004 and why was the file closed a few months later? In early 2005, a social worker went to check on Phoenix, was told she was asleep and left without seeing her. It was the last time anyone from child and family services attempted to see Phoenix before her death.
Kematch and her boyfriend were convicted in 2008 of first-degree murder. According to evidence at their trial, they frequently confined, beat and neglected Phoenix. She was sometimes shot with a BB gun and forced to eat her own vomit.
She died in June, 2005 after a final assault in the basement of the family’s home on the Fisher River reserve and was buried in a shallow grave near the community’s landfill. It took almost nine months for authorities to discover the death. In the interim, Kematch continued to claim welfare benefits with Phoenix listed as a dependent.
The inquiry is slated to run until mid-December and hear from dozens of witnesses.
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