'I feel like he did not die in vain': Family responds to report on tortured B.C. boy's death

The heartbreak over the death of an Indigenous 11-year-old Fraser Valley boy, tortured and then ultimately killed by his foster parents, was felt by all who knew him.

But no one felt it more than the boy’s family.

“It’s the simple things (I miss),” said the boy’s grandmother, who lives on Vancouver Island.

“His birthday. I can still see him smile,” she recalled.

The boy’s father said what hurts the most is knowing what he and his son could be doing now.

“When I’m gardening on my own, I think, ‘I wish he was beside me and I could teach him,’” the father said.

The 2021 death of the boy, identified using the pseudonym “Colby” in a new report, has B.C.’s representative for children and youth calling for a complete overhaul of the province’s foster care model.

Colby’s grandmother, who can’t be identified as it would identify the child, said in an exclusive interview with CTV News, that while the newly released report calls for significant change, she wonders whether that change will ever come.

“Actions speak louder than words. I mean they can talk, talk, talk, but I need to see something concrete,” she said.

But the boy’s father believes the report shines a much-needed light on a foster care system that he says is in ruins.

“I actually broke down and cried (when I read the report), because this is actually exactly the message I’ve been trying to get to the world,” he said, adding that it’s given him hope.

The representative, Jennifer Charlesworth, called the boy's death at the hands of his caregivers who were approved by the provincial government and the children’s First Nation, "completely preventable.”

She said official missteps contributed to the child’s death, including the ministry’s failure to do background checks on the caregivers or visit the home before or after the children were placed there.

Colby’s father choked back tears as he spoke about the report. “The quote in the article said youth make up 20 per cent of the population in B.C., but they’re 100 per cent our future,” he said.

Colby’s grandmother said, “We need to try and advocate for all the children. What’s done is done, but we need to look towards the future for the rest of the children out there.”

Though he has since recovered, Colby’s father had been fighting addiction and was not able to keep his son at the time he and his sisters went into care. But Colby’s grandmother said she appealed to social services to let Colby live with her. To this day, she still doesn’t know why she was denied.

“If they got to come with me, they’d be here. They’d be happy. But a flat out ‘no’ from the ministry, that doesn’t sit well,” she said.

The former minister of children and family development, Mitzi Dean, had promised the grandmother answers following a meeting last year, but they never came.

When asked by CTV News, the new minister, Grace Lore, committed to getting that information for Colby’s grandmother.

The grandmother also said she is angry no one spoke to her while investigating the boy’s death. Still, both the grandmother and the boy’s father hope Colby’s death helps other children.

“I feel like he did not die in vain,” Colby’s dad said.

“He’s shining right now. He’s definitely helping other kids…and that makes me proud,” the dad said.