Supervisors' notes missing, Phoenix Sinclair inquiry learns

All the notes that Manitoba child and family services (CFS) supervisors took during Phoenix Sinclair's short life have gone missing, an inquiry into her death has learned.

Over the course of five-year-old Phoenix's life, at least 10 supervisors oversaw social workers who were handling her troubled family's file.

But all the supervisory notes writtenthroughout the little girl's life much of which was spent in and out of foster care cannot be found, lawyers for the inquiry told reporters late Tuesday.

"You don't get a sense of what actually was happening at the time. There may be information in the notes that isn't available to the inquiry," said Derek Olson, an inquiry counsel.

Gordon McKinnon, a lawyer for Manitoba's Family Services Department, said the missing notes will not have a big impact on the inquiry because the information may show up in other files.

The Phoenix Sinclair inquiry is looking at how Manitoba's child and family services officials handled Phoenix's case.

She spent her life in and out ofthe child welfare system before she died in 2005,shortly after she was returned to her biological mother, Samantha Kematch.

Kematch andher common-law husband, Karl McKay, were convicted in 2008 of first-degree murder in connection with Phoenix's death. The girl had been neglected, confined and repeatedly abused.

The stunning admission about the missing notes was made on Tuesday, during the testimony of former CFS supervisor Angela Balan.

Balan told the inquiry that she kept detailed records of her social workers' caseloads and conducted regular reviews with workers about each of their cases.

Balan said she also supported her staff with readily available information, and she would even accompany them into the field if they wanted.

But inquiry counsel Derek Olson said not only were Balan's case notes missing, but notes belonging to all supervisors involved with Phoenix's case cannot be found.

Balan confirmed that Gordon McKinnon, the lawyer for Manitoba's Department of Family Services, told her that the notes were lost.

'I can't recall' continued

Earlier on Tuesday, the inquiry heard more testimony about why it took a social worker months to make contact with Phoenix's family.

The inquiry has heard that Phoenix wastaken into the care of CFS workers within days of her birth in April 2000, but was returned to Kematch andbiological father Steve Sinclair in September of that year.

As a part of that agreement, the family was supposed to get regular visits from a social worker.

The social worker assigned to their case, Delores Chief-Abigosis, was unable to make contact with the family untilFebruary 2001.

Chief-Abigosis, whoanswered more than 70 questions about the girl's care on Monday by saying, "I can't recall,"continued on the stand Tuesday with the same responses, far surpassing the 100 mark.

She explained she was under a lot of stress at the time, juggling a full caseload at work, taking full-time university courses and commuting to Winnipeg from Brokenhead.

Chief-Abigosis was grilled by lawyer Jeff Gindin, who asked whether she even tried to contact the family in 2000, when there are no notes about it.

"So, either you were not documenting important things, or you weren't doing them. It's one or the other. Right?" he said.

"I disagree.I may have documented them, I maynot have documented. I may have attended a home, I may not have attended butI believe there was attempts to visit the family," Chief-Abigosis said.

"And if you did document them in notes, we don't have those notes," Gindin responded.

"I don't see them," Chief-Abigosis said.