‘Here we are again — reviewing the death of an innocent young child and asking the same questions that have been asked for years’
The ministry that is supposed to be protecting British Columbia’s kids made what the children’s representative says was a “massive error,” resulting in the torturous death of an 11-year-old boy at the hands of those who were approved to be his caregivers.
The boy’s death is not an outlier, Jennifer Charlesworth said in her latest report released Tuesday, but rather an example of ways the child welfare system has let down children and families in B.C. and across Canada, despite decades of reports making hundreds of recommendations for change.
“And yet here we are again — reviewing the death of an innocent young child and asking the same questions that have been asked for years: How did the systems that are intended to help children and families in this province let this boy and his family down so badly? What will it take for us not to return to this very place in another few years?”
Charlesworth said the boy, who was given the pseudonym Colby in her report, had complex medical needs and was one of three siblings placed with their mother’s cousin and her partner.
The man and woman were convicted of manslaughter for his death and of aggravated assault for the abuse of his siblings last year. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“In Colby’s story, there was no one thing or one person who could be held wholly responsible. Instead, we see a web of actions and inactions and dozens of missed opportunities across an entire system,” the report says.
The placement was approved by both B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development and family service’s department of the boy’s First Nation, but the report says the ministry did not complete background checks or visit the home before the siblings were moved there.
Charlesworth said the lack of communication, due diligence and process would “prove to be a massive error” because those in charge of the boy’s safety could have learned the woman had prior involvement with the ministry over physical abuse of her child and there were documented concerns about her partner’s “conduct with children.”
The report says the abuse and torture Colby and his sister experienced was enabled isolation.
“They had little to no contact with anybody outside of the home during the final months of the boy’s life. Colby’s (provincial) social worker didn’t see him in-person during the final seven months despite a ministry policy requirement that children in care should be seen every 90 days,” it says.
“There is no record of the (First Nation) department ever visiting the family or children.”
The report describes Colby’s health-care team placing urgent requests with the ministry and the cousin asking to see him, and teachers raising red flags when the children stopped coming to school in the months leading up to Colby’s death.
In a statement, Children’s Minister Grace Lore promises a cross-ministry group of senior public officials will “guide the development of the new direction throughout the fall and map out new strategies focused on outcomes and prevention across government for children and families.”
“Supporting child and youth well-being requires an all-of-government approach. It requires working together with community partners, First Nations and Indigenous communities. We must do things differently and are committing today to a new vision for child well-being that focuses on prevention, care and a new way of thinking,” she said.
A summary of Charlesworth’s report avoids going into specifics about how the children were abused but says what they suffered was “strikingly similar in nature to the horrors inflicted on many Indigenous children who attended residential schools.”
She makes a series of recommendations, including a review of the assessments done on potential caregivers, dedicated supports for extended family members involved in kinship care, and that public bodies that have previously received recommendations from her office revise their timelines.
BC Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee said in a statement that the boy’s death was entirely preventable and “highlights a profound failure in our collective responsibility to provide connected and holistic care.”
“The experiences of Colby and the other Indigenous and non-Indigenous children examined in this report must serve as a catalyst for real and immediate change,” Teegee said.
“British Columbia and all relevant agencies must urgently implement the report’s recommendations to ensure that no more children or families suffer from the lack of timely and appropriate support. This is a stark call to action for all of us to prioritize the well-being of our most vulnerable community members.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2024.
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