Former Manitoba child advocate testifies at inquiry into child’s death

WINNIPEG – The former head of Manitoba’s advocate for children says her organization had a hard time getting answers about children believed to be at risk even after the case of a murdered five-year-old girl came to light in 2006.

Billie Schibler testified Monday that the Office of the Children’s Advocate had to —- quote — “send in the big guns” and threaten legal action to get responses from the child welfare system.

Schibler told the inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair that she did that in 2007 out of a concern that not all children in care had been seen in person by their case worker.

That was a directive from the province ordered after Phoenix’s death was discovered in 2006, because her case was closed without a case worker seeing her in March and she was murdered that summer.

Schibler told the inquiry that phoning a caregiver to ask if the child is safe is not face-to-face contact, nor is hearing that another worker has seen the child in the community.

Schibler — who now heads the Metis Child and Family Services Authority — said she got a response saying the children in question were eventually seen and accounted for.

She said there needs to be a registry for social workers to hold them accountable and give the public an avenue for complaints.

She also said a truth and reconciliation process would help restore the credibility of the child welfare system in Manitoba.

If the number of kids in care is ever going to be reduced, though, more therapy is needed for broken families and their children who end up in the system, she said.

“It’s easy to be a good parent when you’ve had a loving, nurturing and supportive environment around you,” said Schibler. “We expect people to do that despite what they’ve been through,” she said.

“Those children in care today are tomorrow’s parents.”

(Winnipeg Free Press)