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B.C.’s ‘massive error’ part of web of inaction that could have saved boy: advocate
VICTORIA — 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.
Jennifer Charlesworth says the boy’s death is not an outlier, 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.
Charlesworth says the boy, who was given the pseudonym Colby in her report, had complex medical needs and was one of three siblings placed with the couple who would go on to be convicted of manslaughter for his death in 2023.
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.