The Greg Selinger government fell over itself last week trying to act more concerned about endangered children in government care, than about the fate of embattled Family Services minister Gord Mackintosh.
The media coverage started inauspiciously in a little noticed story in the Wednesday, June 2nd Free Press. Opposition critics voiced concern that a permanent replacement for on-leave Children's Advocate Billie Schibler was not a priority for the NDP.
"Gerald Hawranik (Lac du Bonnet), a Conservative MLA who sits on the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (LMAC),... said while (acting CA Bonnie) Kocsis is "very competent" and may apply to be the permanent Children's Advocate, it's a disadvantage to keep someone in an acting position for too long. Much of the Children's Advocate's role is to develop long-term solutions to problems affecting children, Hawranik said. "I don't think that a child's advocate who is there in an acting capacity would make those changes. They would probably try to keep the status quo."
The second, red flag part of the story was about Hickes smacking down Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux, who had tried to expose a damning report Schibler filed with LMAC by tabling it during Question Period.
"Hickes said it was not a public document and contained "sensitive" personal information. Lamoureux defended his action outside the House, saying "our children are much more important than something that happens beyond closed doors."
A week later, acting speaker Marilyn Brick was forced to allow debate about the report after it was leaked to select media. The public came to see both critics as 100% correct and Hickes as having confused the public interest with that of covering up for his colleague, Gord Mackintosh.
But the NDP deflection campaign forged on, citing the extra funding poured into the system and ongoing reforms. An NDP spin doctor blamed the Tories for tying up commitee business with 1999 NDP Election fraud questions, which somehow prevented finding a replacement for Schibler. In Question Period, the opposition cited concerns about supports for social workers handling 8600 files and for foster parents, insisting Selinger call an emergency public commitee meeting to allow MLA's to ask questions of Kocsic.
Unreported by the mainstream media, 15 consecutive times Selinger side-stepped the demand - until the very next day, when government House leader Bill Blaikie announced that Kocsis, with provincial ombudsman Irene Hamilton and Manitoba auditor Carol Bellringer have agreed to appear before MLA's. Macintosh also smugly announced a new bill would pass within a week, to compel an annual appearance by the CA on Broadway, which had suddenly become a good idea, and an NDP one, at that.
Reporters and commentators pilloried the NDP about Schibler's claim that the CFS system was in "a state of chaos" on their watch, and echoed opposition calls for Mackintosh to be replaced. Finally it fell to Kocsis to save Mackintosh's hide.
She told the Free Press that the report information was taken out of context and that the systemic "chaos" is not resulting in a child care "crisis". She also asserted "the Office of the Children's Advocate (OCA) fully supports the devolution of child welfare services to better serve the specific cultural needs of aboriginal families in our province."
* Devolution is at the root of the murders of Phoenix Sinclair in March 2006 and Gage Guimond in July 2007.
* Add the 145 who died before Sinclair after the devolution policy was begun in 2003, to the 284 reported deaths since 2008, and the total number of deaths of children in contact with the various CFS agencies under the NDP stands at 429 (at least).
* Of the 106 cases referred from the Medical Examiner since 2008, 64 of those yet to even be assigned to a Children's Advocacy office investigator. That is in addition to another 64 cases they are mandated to still investigate.
That is the system Koscic now defends. (Eerily presaged by Hawranik's comment cited above- ed.)
That is the system Schibler as her last act exposed and Koscic in desperation and probably under orders from her political masters is now feebly trying to defend.
She also inadvertently opened a new front for skeptics.
"She said when she prepared the report she knew she would be attending an April 27 meeting (of LMAC) to explain it."
But the FP had earlier reported that Schibler went on paid leave from her $120,000 position in the third week of April -- BEFORE the meeting with LMAC, and well after the report was written.
So who wrote the report, Schibler or her successor? This begs the question, why would Schibler leave the week before it was presented to MLA's? All a little bit too convenient, n’est pas?
[ An edited version of this post will appear this week in the Neighborhood Living newsletters, available at Robins, Smitty's, and other dining and retail establishments throughout Winnipeg ]
