Right to Kill Anonymously

July 4, 2012 permalink

Phoenix Sinclair, who lived her life in and out of Manitoba foster care, died at the age of 5 in 2005. Following the conviction of her killers a public inquiry was called, but it has been delayed by legal action. The union representing social workers is demanding that the names of workers involved in the case be suppressed.

If the inquiry report identifies a worker only as worker two, we will never know anything about her beyond what the inquiry presents. But if the report names her as, say, Janet Kruger, the inquiry will find it hard to mislead the public by withholding information — the press will be able to locate the missing details. We will soon find out which is more worthy of protection: the reputation of social workers or the lives of children.

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No-name inquiry: lawyer wants social worker IDs banned at dead child's hearing

By: Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press, July 4, 2012 Posted: 11:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies) | Last Modified: 4:34 PM

Phoenix Sinclair

FREE PRESS ARCHIVES

WINNIPEG - Social workers who may have failed to protect a young girl from falling through the cracks of Manitoba's child-welfare system must be protected from being pilloried in the media, a union lawyer said Wednesday.

Garth Smorang, lawyer for the Manitoba Government Employees Union, is asking for a publication ban on the identities of social workers at an upcoming public inquiry into the horrific beating death of five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair in 2005.

"The media appears, Mr. Commissioner, to be no longer interested in the accuracy or the truth of the facts that it prints or publishes or broadcasts," Smorang told inquiry commissioner and retired judge Ted Hughes.

"It is primarily interested, in my respectful submission, in the sensationalisation of stories and the laying of blame."

The inquiry, slated to start in September, will look at how child welfare failed to protect Sinclair. She had spent most of her life in foster care but was returned to her mother, Samantha Kematch, in 2004. The girl suffered near-constant abuse by Kematch and the woman's boyfriend, Karl McKay.

While still under the supervision of Child and Family Services, Phoenix was frequently confined, shot with a BB gun, forced to eat her own vomit and neglected. She died after a brutal assault in the basement of the family's home on the Fisher River reserve north of Winnipeg.

A few months before her death, a social worker went to check on Sinclair and was told she was asleep. He saw a sibling playing outside who appeared healthy and decided that was enough.

Sinclair's death went undetected for nine months, and Kematch and McKay continued to claim benefits in her name. Eventually, a relative called police. The girl's body was found in a shallow grave and Kematch and McKay were convicted of first-degree murder.

The union that represents social workers has fought to limit the inquiry. It attempted earlier this year to have the death examined instead by a provincial court inquest, which is more limited in scope and lacks the power to subpoena witnesses.

That argument was rejected by the province's Court of Appeal.

The union is now pushing for a publication ban that would forbid the media from naming or taking pictures or video of any of the social workers who dealt with Sinclair.

Subjecting the workers to such media exposure would harm their ability to do their job, Smorang said. The exposure is also much more extreme with web sites and online comments, he added.

"Gone are the days when you're only infamous until garbage day, because on garbage day the papers get thrown out. Now when you're infamous, you're infamous in perpetuity," Smorang said.

"Social workers will become game for the bloody-minded."

Hughes asked Smorang whether a publication ban was the only option.

"Are there not other measures their employer could take to reduce the risk to workers — that is, remove them from the front line on a temporary basis or to provide counselling to them to cope with the stress and morale issues that arise?" Hughes asked.

Regional child welfare authorities are also asking for the publication ban. They say it should go even further. Their lawyer, Kris Saxberg pointed out that media are not allowed under provincial law to identify parties or witnesses in court cases involving child welfare. That includes parents, foster parents and others. He suggested the principle should be extended to the public inquiry.

"The status quo is confidentiality, the status quo is no public access," Saxberg said.

"We're not starting at the open-court principle. We're starting at the restrictions with respect to the public and with respect to the media that are always in place in every proceeding where the state is dealing with the protection of children."

But Hughes questioned the idea.

"Remember this is a public hearing. Maybe you don't think it is," the commissioner said.

Lawyers for several Winnipeg media outlets and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs are to argue against a publication ban on Thursday. The lawyer for Kim Edwards, the foster mother who cared for Phoenix Sinclair for much of her short life, will also argue against the ban.

Hughes is scheduled to give his decision July 12.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Application for secrecy denied.

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Social workers' identities to be made public in Sinclair inquiry

By: Gabrielle Giroday Posted: 9:54 AM | Last Modified: 10:47 AM

Phoenix Sinclair died in 2005 in Fisher River.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES

Phoenix Sinclair died in 2005 in Fisher River. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

An application for a publication ban on the identities of social workers involved in the care of slain child Phoenix Sinclair has been denied.

In a ruling delivered in written form Thursday morning, Judge Ted Hughes -- who is overseeing the inquiry -- said there will be no ban on audio or video of social workers testimony.

"A public inquiry is meant to educate and inform the public and it follows that permitting broadcasting of the inquiry proceedings would serve to fulfill that aspect of the inquiry's mandate," said the decision," wrote Hughes.

"Were I to restrict audio and video recording and broadcasting of the social workers' testimony in this inquiry, the result would be an inequality among members of the public in access to information about the proceedings."

The 57-page decision comes after days of arguments presented both for and against the ban.

Kim Edwards, Phoenix's former foster mother, who was against a ban, was emotional after the ruling, hugging people with her.

The application for a publication ban had been sought by the union representing social workers, the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union (MGEU).

However, that move was opposed by different parties, including media outlets such as the Free Press.

The ruling does not mean everyone participating in the hearing will be identified. In his ruling, Hughes said there are seven informants -- who are also known as sources of referral (SOR) -- involved in the case whose identities will not become public.

"The Media Group is not taking issue with a publication ban on the identities of SORs, but does reserve its right to bring an application for publication of identity if the evidence reveals that a particular witness played a material role apart from being an SOR," said Hughes, in his written decision.

In the decision, Hughes said "there has been no direct evidence from any of the applicants that would make the necessary link between identifying social workers in the media and increased risks to their personal safety."

"The case law indicates that there would need to be much stronger and more direct evidence of risks to personal safety than what has been filed in order to justify a publication ban on that basis," said Hughes, in his written decision.

"There is evidence filed by the applicants which speaks generally to social workers being concerned about their safety, but there is no evidence of specific incidents or statistics pointing to an increased risk to safety as a result of publicity. The nature of the evidence that has been offered is that some families have referenced the Phoenix Sinclair tragedy to some social workers in the course of their dealings with those families. No direct evidence was offered by any individual social worker being called to testify in this inquiry as to his or her personal circumstances."

Source: Winnipeg Free Press