Death of 21-month-old "eerily similar" to that of Phoenix Sinclair, MLA says
Both young victims had contact with CFS prior to their deaths
One Winnipeg conservative MLA is calling the death of a 21-month-old Peguis First Nation girl eerily similar to that of Phoenix Sinclair, the five-year-old Manitoba girl who was murdered by her mother and her mother's boyfriend in 2005.
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The 21-month-old, whose name cannot be released due to a publication ban on information that will identify the young victim, died of trauma-related injuries in July. She had contact with Child and Family Services prior to her death, and her parents and stepsister have been charged.
Sinclair was dead for nine months before CFS noticed she was missing — information the government did not disclose in the months following her murder.
Her death provoked a provincial inquiry into the child welfare system that ended with 62 recommendations for fixing cracks in the system, but years later, a number of them have still not been implemented.
Portage la Prairie MLA and CFS critic Ian Wishart says the 21-month-old and Sinclair are only two of seven children who have died while in care of or contact with CFS since 2010. He wants to know why it's taking the government so long to act on the recommendations from the Sinclair inquiry.
"We're very concerned that they're taking forever to move on these things... Certainly, it's great to accept the recommendations [but] you actually have to take action on them before they're effective," he said.
The province says the final report on the Phoenix Sinclair recommendations will be released the week of Jan. 25.