Doctor failed to keep notes on Sinclair's mother

APTN National News
Winnipeg – The psychiatrist hired to examine Phoenix Sinclair’s mother testified Monday he never kept notes of his meeting with her and simply provided a verbal update to Children and Family Services in Manitoba.

Dr. Gary Altman testified Monday at the Sinclair inquiry that is looking into the events surrounding the five-year-old’s care while with CFS and afterwards. Sinclair was found dead in 2005.

She was murdered by her mother and stepfather then buried in a shallow grave on the Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba.

Altman testified he examined Sinclair’s mother Samantha Kematch before the young girl was turned back over to her mother in 2000. Sinclair was an infant at the time.

He said he didn’t keep a written file of meeting with Kematch but provided a verbal update to CFS.

That’s a major problem according to Arthur Schaefer, director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Applied Ethics.

“It’s unprofessional,” said Schaefer. “It’s a violation of professional ethics not to have careful professional notes.”

He said it’s extremely unusually to do a consultation without providing a written report.

“I would say a written report would normally be expected and produced. Expected by the client and produced by the mental health professional,” said Schaefer. There may be lots of blame to spread around,” said Schaefer. “It means you are accountable. You could be asked to give an account of yourself…It protects you and also protects the client. I would say it’s not only unusually I would say it would be widely regarded as a violation of professional norms for physicians.”

Altman testified he was only asked to assess whether Kematch was depressed, not if she was fit to be a mother.

Since the inquiry began the public has had access to never before seen pictures of a thriving and happy little girl.

The pictures contrast the cold reality of the little girl’s fate.

Altman had to leave the inquiry early to catch a flight.