“He is so emaciated, he looks like a skeleton. He has the appearance of a child from the Holocaust.”

These were the words said by a provincial court judge during the sentencing of two foster parents following the death of an 11-year-old boy after years of abuse he and his sister faced. The foster parents slapped, kicked, threw objects, and confined the children repeatedly and for prolonged periods.

Among other abuses, the children were forced to wear diapers, were locked in a closet, and routinely assaulted - including being struck with weapons such as a 2x4 inch piece of wood and a broom handle.

The children were forced to eat feces, eat vomit, and drink urine. Food was restricted as a form of punishment.

The judge noted that it was clear in the videos that the boy had become disturbingly thin. He weighed just 28.8 kilograms or around 63.5 pounds, at the time of his death. The Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) sent no one to check on the children for 7 months; the foster mother received no formal training and her early requests for help were ignored by the MCFD. The children were only supposed to be in that house for two weeks but remained for two years.

Report after report states that outcomes for children in care show higher suicide rates, lower levels of education, higher incarceration rates, and more homelessness. Indigenous children are particularly overrepresented - making up 68% of children in foster care, despite only making up 10% of the BC population. Indigenous children are also 3.6 times as likely to be subject to a child maltreatment investigation in Canada. In Canada, Indigenous children as a whole were 17.6 times more likely to be placed in out-of-house care during the investigation process. Similarly, Black children are 3x more likely to end up in foster care.

According to research by the province's Representative for Children and Youth (RCY), 470 children are reported missing from care to MCFD one or more times each month. This particularly impacts Indigenous girls, who make up 40% of children who go missing while in provincial custody. B.C. doesn't know how many children are missing from care, according to the executive director of systemic advocacy with RCY.

The MLA for Saanich North and Islands, Adam Olsen, has commented that while MCFD's mandate is to remove children from unsafe situations and put them in safe ones, it "doesn't appear that the situations [the ministry] is putting them in are safe."

A young child had $500,000 in rent money stolen from them by a social worker. This money, from the ministry, was to pay rent to the foster parent. The foster parent did not believe the child when they told them the money was being stolen. The child was kicked out of their home, becoming houseless once more.

Lisa was only five when she had to stand on the sidewalk with the few things she owned in a garbage bag. She was waiting to move to another home. Again. At 16, Lisa lived in a group home. Only one year later, it closed. Once again, Lisa was left without stability or security, losing the home she had just begun to get used to. Losing the friends she had made and the relationships she had formed with the care staff.

The MCFD budget is 330 Million dollars, with an average cost of $42,848 per child in 2019. This sort of money would go a long way in supporting families and keeping them together. It would also prove to be cheaper for tax-payers. As explained by Jeannine Carriere, "We are willing to give strangers just about anything to look after kids... But we have this blockage when it comes to supporting families."

There are better options. For Lisa, for the children who suffered years of abuse at the hands of the system. We can do better. MCFD already has the solutions to end foster care.

Insoo Kim Berg co-wrote "Building Solutions in Child Protection Services" in 2000, pioneering focused brief therapy. Solution-focused brief therapy helps clients change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems. Kevin Campbell founded the Center for Family Finding and Youth Connectedness, training social workers in Family-orientated processes. His Family Group Conferencing became part of BC legislation in 2003, but it can be taken further. Campbell explains that every child has up to 300 relatives and that it is up to the Ministry and workers to reach out to them to find a kinship placement for the benefit of the child.

The Maori people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) developed the Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) model. The American Humane Society came to present FGDM, now referred to as Family Group Conferencing (FGC). Andrew Turnell co-created a child protection model focused on building cooperative relationships called the "Signs of Safety." This model has been proven to have benefits for children, families, and social workers. The model includes a risk assessment tool designed to engage families in working together with the social workers, support services, and their extended family and community network.

The time to end the harmful foster care system is now. Too many children have been traumatized and separated from their families. We must act immediately to keep families together. We ask the BC government to:

1.  Invest in prevention and family preservation programs 

2.  Prioritize kinship care over stranger foster placements

3. Provide family-centred research-based programs and services centred around kinships keeping children with families 

4.  Implement trauma-informed, culturally-rooted healing programs

References

British Columbia's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner. (2023). ​Missing: Why are children disappearing from B.C.'s child welfare system?​ https://baseline.bchumanrights.ca/report/missing-why-are-children-disappearing-from-b-c-s-child-welfare-system/

Brunoro, M. (2023). Former B.C. foster parents sentenced for horrific child abuse. CTV News Vancouver. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/former-b-c-foster-parents-sentenced-for-horrific-child-abuse-1.6444996

Brunoro, M. (2023). 'This child welfare system in this province is broken': Calls for public inquiry into horrific abuse of B.C. foster children. CTV Vancouver. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/the-child-welfare-system-in-this-province-is-broken-calls-for-public-inquiry-into-horrific-abuse-of-b-c-foster-children-1.6452787

CBC News. (2022). ​Why are kids in government care running away? New report from B.C.'s children, youth rep sheds some light​. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/funding-allocation-mcfd-1.6401290

CBC News. (2023). ​B.C. funding system 'broken' for Indigenous children in provincial care: report ​. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-representative-children-youth-report-kids-government-care-running-away-1.6825373

Charlesworth, J. (2023). Representative's statement on National Indigenous People's Day. Representative for Children and Youth. https://rcybc.ca/reports-and-publications/statements-and-news-releases/national-indigenous-peoples-day/

Coyne, T. (2024). B.C youth representative says official inaction led to boy's torturous death in foster care. CTV News Vancouver. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-youth-representative-says-official-inaction-led-to-boy-s-torturous-death-in-foster-care-1.6965871

Helland, J. (2024). Indigenous girls, failed by MCFD, are going missing in the child welfare system. personal communication.

Fallon, B., Lefebvre, R., Trocmé, N., Richard, K., Hélie, S., Montgomery, H. M., Bennett, M., Joh-Carnella, N., ... & Soop, S.(2021). Denouncing the continued overrepresentation of First Nations children in Canadian child welfare: Findings from the First Nations/Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2019. Ontario: Assembly of First Nations.

Jones, L. (n.d.). Ending Foster Care. personal communication.

The Discourse, Tyee, & Star Vancouver. (2019). Vancouver is Awesome. vanouverisawesome.com

Representative for Children and Youth. (2023). ​Missing: Why are children disappearing from B.C.'s child welfare system? ​​https://rcybc.ca/hfaq/missing/