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What's the problem with people leaving flowers and tributes at the grave until the dad gets the headstone up? I wonder what the foster mother is thinking.
Ditto that. My only thought is that maybe the she prefers the efforts be put into live children and preventing future abuse. :noidea: Or maybe they (the father and the foster mom have both been "granted standing" in Phoenix's case) would just like to maintain a quiet dignity and greive privately in their own way. Such memorials could remind them of people who cared but too late. I dunno - but it seems unusual (to say the least).
 
well i think the foster mother is pissed. if they would have left phoenix with her this would have never happened. no need to have a shrine if the baby was still alive.
 
Ditto that. My only thought is that maybe the she prefers the efforts be put into live children and preventing future abuse. :noidea: Or maybe they (the father and the foster mom have both been "granted standing" in Phoenix's case) would just like to maintain a quiet dignity and greive privately in their own way. Such memorials could remind them of people who cared but too late. I dunno - but it seems unusual (to say the least).

I strongly suspect you are right about her intentions, especially given her own actions (setting up a foundation, I mean).

I get the sentiment behind the shrine, but those toys will just rot; while a living child is suffering right now. It's too late to help Phoenix, she'll never see those toys, nor those signs, the energy would be better put into working to make sure this doesn't happen again, a shrine will not do that. TBH nothing of a grave matters at all to the person in it, it's just to soothe those of us left behind.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
 
Thank you DV btw, for updating this.

(I KNOW I thanked many of the posts on here from '09, but the thanks seem to be gone... weird)
 
Oh, and just because reading it again pissed me off so much:

Cook said earlier in the week that Phoenix may have preferred staying in the unheated, concrete basement because it was better than the abuse she suffered upstairs
.

JFC What the flying fuck sort of rationalization is this? In order to avoid getting tortured she stayed downstairs. isn't that pretty much the definition of coercion? And on an extreme scale.

I'm sort of hoping the lawyer is making an ass of himself and his clients as a means of turning the jury against them, while still upholding his oath to defend to the best of his ability.
 
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 :pound:, 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.
[...]

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.
http://www.canada.com/news/Noname+i...+worker+banned+dead+childs/6882604/story.html
 
Manitoba social workers lose bid for anonymity at inquiry into girl’s death
WINNIPEG—Dozens of Manitoba social workers who dealt with a young girl who died of abuse and neglect will not be anonymous when they testify at a public inquiry into her death.

Inquiry commissioner Ted Hughes rejected a request Thursday from the social workers union for a publication ban on the identities of the workers. The union had argued that having the workers named could expose them to harassment and could make it harder for child welfare to retain and attract employees.

“The evidence adduced by the applicants ... does not show that publication of names or images of social workers in the media 1) will subject them to greater personal safety risk than if they were to remain anonymous; or 2) will cause a serious risk to the child-welfare system,” Hughes said in a written decision. [...]
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...id-for-anonymity-at-inquiry-into-girl-s-death

This is all I got's to say...
YouLoseGoodDaySir.gif
 
Those social workers shoud have been hung out to dry a long time ago. You're had enough time to try and wash the blood off your hands, now it's time to face the music. How the hell are these people still even working in child protection? You don't check on a girl that's already been removed for close to a year? I mean ACTUALLY check, not the half-assed "let's take mom's word on it, she seems alright" goddamn bullshit.

If I fuck up, I take my consequences for it. These people have been allowed to hide their shameful faces for too long, time for the big reveal.
 
If you eat happy foods while reading the DD you wont be as angry I have found. I was eating brownies while I read this and I'm pretty sure that and the contact high i got from my neighbor kept me from wanting to set phasers to kill.
These monsters take common annoyances and turn them into these seriously unbelievable situations. My kid is 3y/o and fully potty trained but he still has accidents. Are they annoying? Yes, but no i'm not gonna beat the shit outta him coz of it. He begs for my food even after he has eaten his own and I hate sharing but I'm not gonna starve him becoz i think he's being unreasonably greedy. The way two+two=five in these peoples heads just throws my head into a headspin. I just wanna do un2o them what they did too her.
 
If you eat happy foods while reading the DD you wont be as angry I have found. I was eating brownies while I read this and I'm pretty sure that and the contact high i got from my neighbor kept me from wanting to set phasers to kill.
These monsters take common annoyances and turn them into these seriously unbelievable situations. My kid is 3y/o and fully potty trained but he still has accidents. Are they annoying? Yes, but no i'm not gonna beat the shit outta him coz of it. He begs for my food even after he has eaten his own and I hate sharing but I'm not gonna starve him becoz i think he's being unreasonably greedy. The way two+two=five in these peoples heads just throws my head into a headspin. I just wanna do un2o them what they did too her.
 
ruzcbt.jpg
Phoenix Sinclair with Rohan Stephenson and Russell Edwards​
How did Phoenix Sinclair become ‘invisible’ to child welfare? Probe opens into Manitoba five-year-old’s murder
WINNIPEG — An inquiry into the death of a young Manitoba girl will examine how she was abused and neglected for months, then killed and buried, all without the knowledge of authorities.

The inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair opened Wednesday with a promise by the lead lawyer that the hearing will be a thorough examination of the province’s child welfare system.

Sherri Walsh told the inquiry the evidence will focus on how Phoenix Sinclair became “invisibleâ€￾ to child welfare workers and her entire community.


One of the central themes of this inquiry, quite plainly, is to consider how it is that in our society, a small child can become so invisible
.
Sinclair spent most of her life in foster care before being returned to her mother in 2004.

She died at the age of five, after a series of assaults, and her death went unnoticed for several months.

The girl’s mother and her mother’s boyfriend were later convicted of first-degree murder.

“One of the central themes of this inquiry, quite plainly, is to consider how it is that in our society, a small child can become so invisible,â€￾ Walsh said in her opening statement.

“Invisible to an entire community, one which includes social service agencies, schools, neighbours friends and family. So invisible as to literally disappear.â€￾

The inquiry is scheduled to run for three months, and will look at broader social issues, including why aboriginal children make up the vast majority of kids in foster care.

Child welfare workers closed Phoenix’s file in early 2005, just a few months before her death. One social worker had gone to check on her and was told she was asleep. The worker saw a sibling playing outside who appeared healthy and left.

[..]
She was killed in the basement of the family’s home on the Fisher River reserve and buried near the community’s landfill. Her mother continued to claim welfare benefits with Phoenix listed as a dependent
.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...be-opens-into-manitoba-five-year-olds-murder/
 
Court of Appeal delays could fail Phoenix Sinclair: Lawyer

The Phoenix Sinclair inquiry could be stalled for as long as a year while the Manitoba Court of Appeal contends with legal issues recently advanced by four Child and Family Services authorities, a veteran city attorney said Sunday.

“I wouldn’t have confidence in their getting anything back in a year,â€￾ said the lawyer, citing systemic stress at all levels of the provincial court system, including Manitoba’s highest court. The Winnipeg Sun is not identifying him.

For months now, some city lawyers — especially those who handle criminal cases — have quietly been expressing frustration at delays in obtaining decisions from the appeals and other levels of court, with some appeal cases still pending more than a year after they’ve been argued.

“If they can’t do something in less than a year when people’s lives are at stake, then what’s going to happen with an administrative matter?â€￾ the 20-year lawyer asked.

If his prediction holds true, a year-long delay in receiving a ruling in the new CFS case would be twice the long-standing national standard of appeals courts allowing a maximum of six months between argument and decision.

Friday, Court of Appeal Justice Marc Monnin called a halt to witness testimony at the inquiry for the court to stage a full hearing on whether the CFS group should have access to verbatim transcripts of pre-interviews with prospective witnesses.

Commissioner Ted Hughes denied the CFS group’s request Aug. 1, saying the documents were meant for internal use only and not intended to be disclosed.

While Monnin pledged the court would hear the case as quickly as possible (possibly in October if all sides can prepare in time) the real looming issue is how long it may take a panel of the top court to render its decision, several justice sources say, citing recent examples of delay.

Sept. 22 will mark one year since independent Crown prosecutor Robert Tapper argued at the Court of Appeal to reopen a high-profile perjury case involving two Winnipeg police officers.

Consts. Jess Zebrun and Peter O’Kane were acquitted in the Court of Queen’s Bench after trial Justice Brenda Keyser made a controversial finding that Tapper failed to prove identification.

The appeal hearing came seven months after the officers’ acquittals. They were charged in January 2008. The alleged perjury took place in 2006 at a preliminary hearing relating to an incident in July 2005.

The province called the inquiry into Phoenix Sinclair’s death in 2006, but legal wrangling and delays triggered by the murder prosecution of the five-year-old’s mother and her common-law husband put off the start of witness testimony until last week.

Any further delay could directly impact on the quality of testimony Hughes ultimately hears, as the passage of time has a major impact on the memories of witnesses, the lawyer said.

“They might as well just read (the witnesses’) notes,â€￾ he said, adding he feels efforts to obtain justice for the slain little girl have failed due to the court system. “It takes too long to do anything,â€￾ said the lawyer.

In May, the provincial government admitted it was aware of delays in the appeals arena and suggested resource issues were to blame.

Justice Minister Andrew Swan told a legislative committee cash was freed up for the 2012 budget for the court to hire an additional researcher in hopes of easing easing judicial workload and allowing decisions to come more quickly.

The “ideal standardâ€￾ of the Canadian Judicial Council is to have appeal courts issue decisions in cases within six months of arguments being heard, Swan said.

That standard was set by the CJC in 1985, according to its 2009 internal handbook for appellate court judges.

Swan acknowledged the appeals court wasn’t meeting that standard in some cases — despite a dip in the number of cases being heard.

“The actual number of cases that court hears has actually been declining over the past number of years,â€￾ Swan said at the time. “But the court will tell you, and I agree, that the overall complexity of the cases that they’re deciding has become more complex.â€￾ Then-Progressive Conservative Justice Critic Kelvin Goertzen requested a total number of backlogged appeal cases from the court via Swan’s office but confirmed Sunday he never received a response.
[...]
http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/09/09/court-of-appeal-delays-could-fail-phoenix-sinclair-lawyer
2mrz3m0.jpg
Phoenix was abused and murdered at age five by her mother, Samantha Kematch and Kematch's boyfriend, Karl McKay, at their Fisher River First Nation home in June 2005, a few months after she was returned to Kematch's care and her CFS file closed. Her death went undiscovered for nine months.​
 
New details emerge about how child welfare failed to protect Phoenix Sinclair
Phoenix Sinclair began to fall through the cracks of Manitoba's child-welfare system mere months after she was born to parents with a history of violence and substance abuse and five years before she was beaten to death.

Social workers failed to monitor the family for months at a time, and failed to investigate after the girl was brought to hospital with an infection from an object that had been embedded in her nose for three months, according to a document obtained by The Canadian Press.

The document is a 2006 review of Phoenix's death by then-provincial children's advocate, Billie Schibler, and Andrew Koster, head of a children's aid society in Ontario. The report has been kept secret, but some portions are now being discussed at a public inquiry into the case.

"From October 2000 to the last contact with this family, actual service was almost non-existent," the review says.

"There was no recorded contact between October 2000 and February 2001, even though the service agreement signed on Sept. 5, 2000, states 'meeting with the worker on a regular basis."'
[...]

The inquiry, which has heard five days of testimony so far, is examining how Phoenix was failed by child welfare despite numerous warning signs from the moment she was born in April 2000.

Her mother and biological father, Steve Sinclair, had both been in foster care and had a long list of troubles.

Kematch had stolen cars, had hung out with gang members and had run away from foster homes. Months after she turned 18 and became too old to fall under child welfare, she gave birth to Phoenix.

Sinclair was aggressive and addicted to alcohol. A review of his case, done as he turned 18, warned that he should not be given care of children.

"Steven remains to be a highly disturbed individual who should not be left in charge of dependent children," the review states.

Kematch was on welfare and had already had another child taken from her two years earlier. The inquiry heard from a social worker that she and Sinclair were uninterested in being parents and didn't have a crib, clothes or a car seat for the baby even as they went to the hospital for her birth.

Despite all that, social workers tried to reunite the family after taking Phoenix from the couple days after her birth.
They developed a plan which required Kematch and Sinclair to take parenting classes, visit Phoenix weekly and have an in-home support worker. Kematch was also to undergo a psychological assessment.

By Sept. 5, 2000, the girl was back with her parents on the condition that they have regular visits from social workers to ensure that she was being properly cared for.

The review obtained by The Canadian Press says that didn't happen.

Starting in October, there was no recorded contact with the family for four months. A social worker did visit the family in February 2001, but that was followed by more inaction.
[...]
Continue reading: http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/new-deta...-failed-to-protect-phoenix-sinclair-1.1041692
 
Hoepfully something will change. Why do things have to deteriorate to this point to enact any positive changes?
 
Update today from the ongoing inquiry into the tragic life and death of Phoenix.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...phoenix-sinclair-inquiry-witness-kematch.html

Phoenix Sinclair inquiry hears details of mother's abuse

A Manitoba public inquiry into the 2005 death of Phoenix Sinclair has heard disturbing new details from witnesses who saw the young girl being abused by her mother. The inquiry is looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of Phoenix, who was beaten to death in 2005, at the age of five, after suffering abuse and neglect. Phoenix's biological mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch's boyfriend, Karl Wesley McKay, were convicted of first-degree murder in the child's death.

One witness, who cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban, had known Kematch since they were teenagers and hung out with her in Winnipeg, the inquiry was told Wednesday.

...

The witness testified that Kematch was quick to become angry with Phoenix, even for simple things like getting dirty after playing in the backyard. The witness testified that Kematch took away all of Phoenix's Christmas presents in 2004 — dumping them at the witness's house — because the child was "bad" and did not deserve them.

At one point, Kematch taught Phoenix to call herself a "f---ing bitch," the witness told the inquiry.

The witness said Kematch was rarely seen with Phoenix. When asked where the little girl was, Kematch said she was "with family" or on the road with McKay, who at the time was a trucker, the inquiry was told.

The witness testified about having concerns that McKay was physically abusing Kematch and may have been sexually abusing Phoenix. The little girl was wetting the bed and touching herself inappropriately, the witness told the inquiry.

...

A second friend of Kematch, who also cannot be identified by court order, testified later on Wednesday about an incident involving the mother.

...

Whimpering could be heard behind the locked door, said the witness, who later tried to tell child welfare authorities that the little girl was being locked inside the bedroom. The inquiry heard the witness was also concerned that Kematch was making statements of a sexual nature to Phoenix, who was four years old at the time.

As with the first witness, the second witness had concerns Phoenix may have been sexually abused by McKay, the inquiry was told.

Both witnesses tried to call a child and family services (CFS) agency with an anonymous tip in the winter of 2005, the inquiry was told. Because the tip was anonymous, officials did not take the concerns seriously, according to the witnesses. Lawyers for government and CFS agencies questioned whether the witnesses had, in fact, called the agency with those concerns.

The lawyers also questioned if the first witness had specifically stated any concerns about sexual abuse.

Records from an RCMP interview that was later conducted with the first witness indicated there were concerns about Phoenix being alone on the road with McKay, and about Phoenix being locked inside the bedroom.

...

Kematch and McKay, along with Phoenix, eventually moved to the Fisher River First Nation, about 150 kilometres north of the city, where Phoenix was beaten, neglected and eventually killed in June 2005.

Her body was not found until nine months later, in March 2006, wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave near the landfill at the reserve.

The inquiry is looking at how CFS officials handled the girl's case and why her death went undiscovered for months.


Fuck; I'd like to throat punch a whole bunch of people involved in this horrible mess who could have, and should have, done so much better by Phoenix.


Edited to insert link to full inquiry coverage page:
http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/features/phoenixsinclair/
 
Last edited:
What would Phoenix Sinclair's life be like if she hadn't been killed by her caregivers? Research indicates she would've grown up to be a lot like her mom.

"Many people focused on the mom and how horrible she was. There's no denying Phoenix lived through horrors," Marni Brownell with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy testified Wednesday at the inquiry into Phoenix's death. But having studied the data for the same cohort of kids born in Manitoba around the same time as Phoenix, the odds weren't in favour of a positive outcome for her.

"Without proper supports and based on the risk factors, she would've dropped out, become a teen mom, her kids would've been apprehended," said the former Child Guidance Clinic psychologist, who has studied the risk factors for the maltreatment of children in care and the health and academic outcomes for high-risk youths in Manitoba.

"If Phoenix had survived, she would've become a mom like her own mom," she said. "It's predictable without the proper supports in place."

Phoenix had three strikes against her before she was born, said Brownell, the associate professor of community health science at the University of Manitoba. Her mother was a teen when she had her first child, her family was on social assistance and had been involved with child welfare.

Her mother, Samantha Kematch, had her first baby taken into care before Phoenix was born. Kematch and Phoenix's father, Steve Sinclair, were high school dropouts on welfare and had been involved with child welfare and were likely in need of supports they didn't get, the inquiry has heard many times. Only 15 per cent of children with all of those risk factors will finish high school, said Brownell. Education is linked to income, which is linked to health, she said.

"In Winnipeg, almost one in three kids has one of those risk factors," she said.

Poverty has a lot to do with it, Brownell said. Future outcomes are linked to income and they improve as income levels rise.

There is a ton of evidence early childhood programs can help alleviate the risk and break the "vicious cycle" of kids in care having kids in care, said Brownell. For every dollar spent on kids early, society saves $16 later on things such as incarceration and social spending, Brownell said.

If you don't invest in the poor and at-risk you end up paying the consequences, she said. "They will be more likely on income assistance than contributing. They will be taking away from the economy."

Prevention is too late for the nearly 10,000 kids already in care in Manitoba. It's possibly the highest rate in the world, said Brownell, who has worked with researchers in other countries from Australia to the U.K. The number of kids in care here astounds them, she said.

With such poor outcomes for those kids, research is needed to determine if there are better strategies such as having kids stay in the home and having a support worker there to assist the parents in parenting, she said.

Unless aboriginal people take over their own child welfare, Manitoba can expect 20,000 kids in care 20 years from now, said Leslie Spillett, executive director of Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc., an urban aboriginal social development agency. "We have to be in charge of ourselves," said Spillett.
[...]
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/she-wouldve-become-a-mom-like-her-own-210370541.html
 
I know this old but does anyone know of an update on these shit bags? (I don't even wanna pretend they're human). This case hit me hard, I followed it in high school and just found it here.
 
They lost their appeals, were denied retrial and their life sentences were upheld. The inquiry into Phoenix's case cost $14m, results were released back in January and frankly didn't say anything the veteran DD reader wouldn't have expected.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/31/phoenix-sinclair-inquiry_n_4703510.html

I cannot get the image of that poor little girl dying hungry, in pain and alone on that cold basement floor out of my head. Torture is too good for those monsters.
 
16538

Please take a moment to wish an Angel a happy birthday.

5 year-old Phoenix was savagely kicked and punched by a new boyfriend of the maternal bio-unit.

The savage beaten occurred on a cold concrete basement floor.

This was not the only abuse Phoenix experienced in her short tragic life she was neglected, starved, shot with a BB gun and forced to eat her own vomit.

Phoenix's only value was the welfare benefits the bio-unit continued to collect after she and her boyfriend buried Phoenix in a shallow grave next to a landfill.

The murderers of this Angel were sentenced to life and will not be eligible for parole for 25 years.
 
Listening to this female speak makes me want to go to the prison she is in and beat the shot out of her.

Towards the end of the video you hear the penis and this egg try to blame the other person and make it all about themselves.

You can only hope in the future the egg has to rely on someone like herself, truly evil, to care for her.

1653156067011.png

No person has ever deserved to be beaten over the head with a sledgehammer as much as Samantha Kematch.

 
Listening to this female speak makes me want to go to the prison she is in and beat the shot out of her.

Towards the end of the video you hear the penis and this egg try to blame the other person and make it all about themselves.

You can only hope in the future the egg has to rely on someone like herself, truly evil, to care for her.

View attachment 76511
No person has ever deserved to be beaten over the head with a sledgehammer as much as Samantha Kematch.


She'll get hers.
 
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