Letter to Editor
Re: Keep Inquiry Public editorial, Tuesday, July 5, 2011

On behalf of front-line social workers throughout Manitoba who strive every day and every night to protect Manitoba’s most vulnerable citizens, I’m writing in response to your July 5 editorial, “Keep Inquiry Public.”

The editorial stated that any inquiry which did not name and publicly identify those social workers who are called to testify about the tragic life and death of Phoenix Sinclair would somehow “obscure accountability.” I could not disagree more.

All those child welfare social workers who were involved, either directly or not, in the tragic life of Phoenix Sinclair, the union who represents them, the Provincial government, and the media, have something in common. We want to do everything in our power to prevent any child from suffering the way Phoenix did. But I fail to see how featuring the names and faces of all those called to testify is in any way integral to achieving this.

Manitobans who choose to go into child protection as a career do so knowing that they will face tough, often heartbreakingly difficult choices and responsibilities. And they will face these responsibilities within a system that too often strains beneath its own weighty mandate: that is, to ensure all Manitoba children are safe enough to reach their full potential.

The goal of the inquiry is to identify what role both individual and systemic decisions played in not preventing the tragic torture and death of a child. Out of this difficult process, can potentially come the kind of positive, preventive changes we all want. But why must individual professionals be pin-pointed by media outlets throughout the process? Perhaps names and faces makes for a more complete and prurient news story, but at what cost to dozens of deeply committed professionals?

I am by no means implying that individual professionals should not be held accountable for their actions. But they are not on trial. The public does not need to be shown names and faces for justice to be served, or solutions found. If all those called to testify are publicly identified, it could irretrievably damage careers as well as hard-wrought relationships with Manitoba families in crisis.

All we’re asking is for the media to help us protect the integrity and accountability of our child welfare system as it currently is, while we work to ensure its tragic shortfalls are rectified.

Lois Wales
MGEU President
 

View Lindor Reynold's editorial here.