Union bid to hide IDs doesn't have leg to stand on

The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union will go to any lengths to keep secret the identities of the social workers involved in the life and death of Phoenix Sinclair.

No reason offered by the MGEU -- not the union members' alleged fear of repercussions, not the possibility their appearance in a 10-second clip on the news will identify them to strangers somewhere down the line, not the viciousness of online commenters -- can justify hiding them.

Thirty-eight employees have been compelled to testify at the upcoming public inquiry into the 2005 death of the five-year-old.

To review: Phoenix died after a prolonged period of abuse. It was nine months before anyone noticed her missing. Child and Family Services closed her file three months before her death. In 2008, her mother and stepfather were found guilty of first-degree murder.

In 2011, the province called a public inquiry into the death. The inquiry was delayed when the commission had to go to court to obtain confidential child-welfare documents. In July 2011, the MGEU sought a publication ban on the names and faces of involved CFS workers.

In 2012, the MGEU also applied to the Manitoba Court of Appeal to force the commission to justify its legal status. They lost, but not before the start of witness testimony was postponed to July from May.

Commission head Ted Hughes will hear arguments on the publication ban before the July 4 start of the public inquiry. The Free Press is one of several media outlets fighting the MGEU application.

There are several prongs to the MGEU's argument, found in court documents. Social workers claim they fear their safety will be compromised if they are publicly identified, as will their ability to do their jobs effectively.

"People who see a social worker visiting a residence may recognize that person as a social worker and thereby know that the family is in some way involved with the child-welfare system," says a document.

C'mon, really? The odds of a curtain-flapping neighbour spying a stranger at a nearby door and connecting them with an earlier glimpse on the TV news or in the paper seem slim. The odds of people seeing a strange car on their street and a person in business garb knocking on a door and then connecting those dots to an authority figure are much better.

In the documents, the MGEU points to negative online comments on media websites as a reason to protect the identity of its members. If you want to read hysterical ranting, comments sections are a good place to start. You will also find coherent arguments making a solid point.

The vitriol isn't pleasant, but it is the right of the commenters, assuming they stick to website guidelines.

The social workers' names won't change the tone one way or another.

The employees fear their memories will prevent them from recalling all the details of their past involvement with the Sinclair case. This, they say, will hold them up for vilification.

Nonsense. Mark Stobbe's memory wasn't that great and he walked out of court a free man. Cops testify about old cases using their notes and their memory. If they can't remember a detail, they say so.

The social workers who passed tangentially through Phoenix Sinclair's life will suffer no repercussions. The inquiry will reveal if some workers failed the child miserably. Those are the names the MGEU so desperately wants to keep hidden.

The affidavit reveals something that had been kept from the public. It appears no CFS worker was fired for their role in the child's death.

The court document says of 28 workers represented by a single law firm, 21 remain employed as front-line social workers, five have changed positions but remain with child-welfare agencies, one has retired and one is employed privately by a First Nation.

The employment status of the other 10 is not detailed.

The MGEU doesn't want a public inquiry. They want a star chamber, an ancient court set up to enforce the laws against people so prominent that ordinary courts couldn't convict them.

These are social workers. The majority of them do their jobs well and under difficult circumstances. But if some failed in their sworn duty to protect Phoenix Sinclair, you better believe the public has the right to know.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 10, 2012 B1