Manitoba union loses bid to halt Phoenix Sinclair inquiry

The union representing Manitoba's child-welfare and social workers has losta court bid to quash a public inquiry into the abuse anddeath of Phoenix Sinclair, a five-year-old girl, in 2005.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (MGEU) hadquestioned the legal validity and jurisdictionof the upcoming provincial inquiry into the death.

The Sinclairinquiry is set to begin on May 23.It will be overseenby commissioner Ted Hughes.

Ordered by the province in 2006, the inquiryaims to examine how Manitoba's Child and Family Services staff and officials failed to protect the girl, who was killed by her mother and stepfather in June 2005.

The inquiry will also examine how Phoenix's death went unnoticed for months. It wasn't until March 2006 that her body was found wrapped in plastic in an unmarked shallow grave on the Fisher River First Nation.

Lawyers for the union argued last weekthat deaths of children in foster care are normally examined by provincial court inquests, not public inquiries.

But in a written decision released Thursday, the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed the union's motion.