Mom's neglect started with no prenatal care

When Samantha Kematch was 15, her Child and Family Services file described her as sexually promiscuous, criminally involved, hostile, connected to a gang, involved with drugs and alcohol and a general pain in the butt. She was a chronic runaway who rarely attended school.

Kematch was Phoenix Sinclair's future mother.

There was a long history of violence in Kematch's family. When her parents split up, her dad got custody. He died after drunkenly falling down a flight of stairs. Kematch and her brothers went back to their mother, a transient alcoholic. She was physically and emotionally abused by her mother, a fact that became salient when Kematch had her own children.

She and her brothers became permanent wards of CFS in 1995. They'd had no contact with their mother since 1993. Kematch left CFS care when she aged out at 18.

So: raised by wolves, troubled and abused. Her foster homes couldn't handle her and her own brother feared her. Kematch's first child, a son, was born in July 1998. She was 16. He immediately became a permanent ward of CFS. Her CFS file notes there were serious concerns about her ability to parent. She'd kept her pregnancy a secret, had no prenatal care and wouldn't accept any kind of help.

"They thought I might hurt him," she later told a social worker.

This information came from a Cree Nation CFS file that should have been confidential and was sent to Phoenix's social worker by mistake.

Kematch and her common-law husband, Karl McKay, were convicted in 2008 of murdering five-year-old Phoenix.

It's worth noting Steven Sinclair, Phoenix's father, was also a CFS ward. But early testimony at the inquiry into the child's murder indicates he was more mature and interested in being a parent than his then-girlfriend.

Winnipeg CFS employee Marnie Saunderson, Phoenix's first social worker, took the stand Thursday to share what she knows of Kematch's sorry story and the first few days of the dead girl's life. Admirably frank, she painted a picture of a child welfare system still in chaos nine years after the murder. Workloads are still too heavy. The strain shows. More money and staff added to the child welfare system doesn't necessarily mean lessened workloads, she said.

She testified workloads have been an issue in the 20 years she's been in child welfare.

Let's go back to 2000, when Saunderson met Kematch, Sinclair and the newborn Phoenix. Both parents said they weren't sure they were ready to be parents.

"Sam stated that she was not sure she was ready to be a mother and felt she should have waited longer to become a parent," Saunderson wrote in her notes. "The birth of Phoenix was not a planned occurrence."

Not much in that girl's life was, it seems. The new parents admitted they'd done nothing to prepare for the baby. Again, Kematch had no prenatal care because she "didn't like doctors."

The day Saunderson came to formally take the baby, Kematch said her mother and aunt were coming to get her instead. She was told that wasn't possible. Kematch claimed her mother was coming from her home reserve but couldn't name that reserve.

CFS notes said Kematch "despises her mother because of the physical and emotional abuse." Granny wasn't getting the newborn.

As Saunderson dressed Phoenix for her departure, she asked if the parents wanted to help. Sinclair did. Kematch was indifferent. It was Sinclair who pressed for visits with his newborn.

The inquiry is in its nascent stages. Saunderson was Phoenix's social worker for scant days, so she was only able to describe the decision to seize the baby, as well as Kematch's own CFS record.

We don't know why Phoenix was returned to her mother, who would later co-operate in the torture, abuse and slaying of the child. That story will unfold as the weeks pass and the testimony accumulates.

Surely there is an answer to that question buried in the mountains of memos and manuals being trotted out at this inquiry. There must be a reason that baby was handed back to a woman so indifferent, she wouldn't buy diapers to prepare for her arrival.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 7, 2012 A5