View From the Legislature

Phoenix Sinclair died at the age of five in 2005 after suffering horrific abuse at the hands of her mother and common-law husband. Her death went undiscovered for months. Phoenix was in the care of Child and Family Services (CFS) until about a year before her death when she was returned to the custody of her mother.

In 2006, the NDP government did the right thing by calling a public inquiry into the death of Phoenix. What needs to be examined, among other things, was why this little girl was returned to an abusive home environment, why she wasn’t seen during checks by CFS and why her death went undiscovered for so long. It is about ensuring that changes have occurred that will reduce the chances of such a tragedy happening again.

The inquiry has only recently begun preliminary proceedings. Many wonder why there has been a delay of six years. Part of the delay was a result of criminal proceedings against the mother and common-law partner of Phoenix. They were convicted of first-degree murder near the end of 2008 and will both be serving at least 25 years in jail for this horrific crime.

But there have been other delays as well. It took the NDP government many months to finally appoint Ted Hughes as Commissioner of the inquiry. When he was appointed, the Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU), who represents CFS workers, took the issue of an inquiry to court arguing that the province did not have the jurisdiction to hold such an inquiry. It was a strange application and ultimately the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled that in fact the province had every right to hold the inquiry.

Since then, MGEU has made an application to keep the names of the CFS workers involved in the care of Phoenix a secret during the inquiry. That has resulted in a delay in the proceedings as well. Perhaps all of these delays have caused some to wonder if the inquiry still has value. I believe that it does.

The court proceedings were about determining who was criminally responsible for the death of Phoenix. There needed to be justice, as much as can be provided under our system of law, for Phoenix. That process has now resulted in first degree murder convictions.

The inquiry is looking at a much broader issue however than the courts did. Its mandate is to examine the circumstances around the death of Phoenix Sinclair and in particular to look at the child welfare services given to Phoenix and to examine why her death remained undiscovered for several months. The answers to these questions are critical to ensuring all that can be done has been done to try to prevent this tragic case from being repeated.

Hopefully when the legal wrangling ends and the testimony begins at the inquiry, it will be remembered that while nothing can undue this tragedy, taking steps to keep it from being repeated is the true value of the inquiry and the best we can do to honour a life cut much too short.