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Children's advocate must go: Gerrard

By: Staff Writer

Tuesday, Jun. 12, 2012 at 7:38 AM | Comments: 0

LIBERAL Leader Jon Gerrard has called on Manitoba's children's advocate to resign over her comments Friday expressing doubt over the value of the Phoenix Sinclair inquiry.

Gerrard told the legislature Monday it was "unacceptable" the province had a children's advocate who didn't support the accountability that would come from an inquiry into Phoenix's death.

Gerrard called on Family Services Minister Jennifer Howard to demand Darlene MacDonald's resignation "and bring in a child advocate who advocates on behalf of the children instead of advocating on behalf of the child and family services authorities."

Howard said MacDonald is answerable to the entire legislature and not just her office.

"She's an independent officer of the legislature," Howard said. "He (Gerrard) was on the committee that appointed her as the children's advocate. And I do not believe that we fire people simply because we do not agree with them."

Phoenix was five when she was killed in 2005. It took more than nine months for officials to realize she was missing despite the fact she had been in CFS care and only recently returned to her birth mother. In 2008, her mother and stepfather were found guilty of first-degree murder.

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