Article content Colby was lovingly nicknamed “the miracle baby” when he was born in 2009, as his twin did not survive their emergency birth. “He was like taking care of a doll. He was so small, (it was) hard to feed him.
You would have to take your finger and massage down the front of his throat to help him get it down,” a relative recalled. Colby endured years of surgeries and medical appointments — complex health needs that were challenging for his parents due to poverty, intergenerational trauma, and a lack of support in their small Indigenous community. The small, skinny boy with tousled dark hair and brown eyes loved kicking a soccer ball, the power of monster trucks, reading Archie comics, and playing the video game Minecraft.
Those who knew him recall his gentle spirit and a wide smile, which stand in stark contrast to the “horrific abuse and torture” that he suffered in the home of a caregiver, who had been approved by social workers to look after him. His death in 2021, following a horrendous nine-minute beating by the caregiver, is the subject of a released Tuesday by B.C.
’s representative for children and youth. And that scathing report prompted the minister responsible for child welfare to promise wholesale change in how vulnerable youth are cared for. “What happened to (Colby) is unimaginable.
There are no words,” said Grace Lore, minister of children and family services. “I want to apologize because it is clear Colby and his family were fai.
