'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.

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.