Child welfare failed murdered girl: judge
Manitoba resolves to effect changes
WINNIPEG — An inquiry judge has found Manitoba child welfare fundamentally misunderstood its mandate to protect children and left a lit- tle girl who was murdered “defenceless against her mother’s cruelty” and against the “sadistic violence” of the woman’s boyfriend.
Five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair was killed by the couple in 2005 after prolonged and horrific abuse.
In his final report into her death, commissioner Ted Hughes recommended Manitoba should take the lead to address the disproportionate number of aboriginal children in care across Canada.
Phoenix was apprehended at birth and during her life 27 agency workers were involved in her file. She was repeatedly returned to her mother, Samantha Kematch.
Kematch and Karl McKay neglected, confined, tortured and beat Phoenix. She ultimately died of extensive injuries on the cold basement floor of the couple’s home on the Fisher River reserve. She was buried in a shallow grave by the community dump and Kematch continued to collect child subsidy cheques. Both adults were convicted of first-degree murder in 2008.
The province accepts Hughes’s recommendations and will determine how to put them into practice, Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said. “We are doing this because we want to move away from a culture of secrecy and individual blame and toward a culture of safety and learning focusing on protecting our children,” the minister said.