Questions abound after six-year-old boy dies in BC foster care

A Victoria family is reeling and demanding answers after learning its six-year-old son drowned earlier this week while in BC foster care.

BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Services confirms the death, calling it “absolutely devastating”, but because of confidentiality regulations, cannot confirm the name of the child.

CHEK News has reported Oliver and his eight-year-old sister were in foster care when the boy drowned in a backyard pond.

“Our innocent, impulsive, cheerful explorer had been left alone with his sister to play completely unattended in a large yard with a pool,” Jade Ratchford, the boy’s mother, told CHEK, adding the child was found face down in the pond.

“It's every parent's worst nightmare,” Grace Lore, the minister for children and family development told Capital Daily.

“I'm the parent of a seven- and a nine-year-old,” she said. “I can't imagine what that family is going through.”

The minister said she cannot comment on specific situations or confirm if a person is in care, even if family members speak about it publicly.

“What I can say, is that it is my expectation that if a child dies in care, the ministry does everything to get to the truth of what happened.”

Lore said families deserve answers and the ministry will take “the necessary changes to make sure that we are doing everything possible to keep children safe and protected.”

Boy and his sister taken into foster care Feb. 22

Citing family sources, CHEK reported the boy and his sister were taken into foster care a week from yesterday, Feb. 22. Four days later, Ratchford was told her son had been rushed to hospital and was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead early Wednesday morning, CHEK reported.

“How is this child protection? How is this right? How is this the government’s idea of what safety is?” Ratchford asked CHEK.

The ministry said foster parents and caregivers undergo thorough assessments of how to become caregivers for children, including criminal record checks for working with vulnerable youth.

“It includes a home safety assessment and a home study,” Lore said.

"It is my expectation that we are getting all of the information we need to understand how and what happened and if there are more steps necessary, I will be taking them.”

MCFS has been heavily criticized

BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Services has been under intense scrutiny recently, with several cases of abuse of children in government care, including the heartbreaking torture and starvation of an 11-year-old First Nations boy who was beaten to death in foster care.

In June, a man and a woman—who along with the children cannot be identified under a publication ban—were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Chilliwack for the Feb. 2021 death. The couple pleaded guilty to the boy’s manslaughter and aggravated assault, and the aggravated assault of his sister, who was eight.

At this time, the First Nations Leadership Council called for then-minister Mitzi Dean’s resignation, who it blamed for an “inadequate approach and ongoing lack of accountability.”

Calls for her dismissal grew louder following the October release of an audit that chronicled how the ministry had not checked on at least 14 other foster care cases, even though ministry policy calls for checks on children in care every 90 days.

Minister replaced in January by Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA

Last month, Dean was dismissed and replaced by Lore, the MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill.

While not suggesting money alone will provide the changes necessary to improve British Columbian’s confidence in the children’s ministry, Lore told Capital Daily her ministry’s budget has been increased by $200M and that a lot of that money will be used to hire more frontline workers, including “doubling” the number of those who provide the important role of connecting kids with culture.

“And there's an additional $40M going to child protection support, which means we're providing home and care for children who are unable to live with their parents, whether that's… extended family, or in foster care.”

In the legislature Thursday, BC’s Opposition leader said the way Oliver was treated in foster care is akin to “child neglect.”

“That family deserves answers, but so does the public about what on Earth is going on in that ministry,” Kevin Falcon told the house.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the child’s family.