Manitoba government gets inquiry report into child’s death, but not yet public

WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government says it has received the final report from a public inquiry into the death of a five-year-old girl who spent much of her life in foster care.

The New Democrats say they won’t release the report until early next year after a “thorough review by the government.”

More than two years ago, Commissioner Ted Hughes was tasked with figuring out how Phoenix Sinclair slipped through cracks in child welfare and how her death at the hands of her guardians went undiscovered for months.

Phoenix bounced in and out of foster care before she was murdered by her mother and stepfather in 2005.

Kim Edwards, Phoenix’s foster mother, says she hasn’t seen the report and won’t get to see it until it is publicly released.

The inquiry, one of the most expensive in the province’s history, sat for 91 days and heard testimony from 126 witnesses.