A B.C. father whose son died in a horrific case of foster care abuse said he sensed something was wrong when he last saw his son before Christmas in 2019.
The father can only be identified as R.C. due to a court-ordered publication ban.
R.C. said on that last visit he took the boy, identified as R.L.C. in court documents, out shopping and they had a really good day together.
But the minute they turned into the driveway of R.L.C.’s foster home in Lake Errock, B.C., R.C. said his son squeezed him hard, was shaking — and then started crying.
“At that point, I thought that he was just missing me because we didn’t get to see each other a whole lot,” R.C. told Global News in an interview.
“But now I understand that it was for a completely different reason – he didn’t want to go into that house.”
R.C. regrets not saying something to his son at the time, and said if he had known about the horrendous abuse going on inside the home, he would never have taken R.L.C. back.
“He was a fighter and I know he fought in that whole year and a half, that’s why he lasted that long,” R.C. said.
“I really wish he was still here.”
R.C. said he and his former partner both struggled with addiction.
In October 2019, while R.C. was sober and on his journey to recovery, their three children, including his then-10-year-old son R.L.C. and the boy’s seven-year-old sister, N.P., were removed from their mother’s care and placed with two Indigenous foster parents that R.C. said he trusted.
“I’m glad the ministry was there at that point to help because they promised me that they’d make a good life for my kids,” R.C. recalled.
Instead, the children entered what Chilliwack Provincial Court Judge Peter La Prairie later described as a “house of horrors.”
According to La Prairie’s June 16 judgment, the two youngest siblings were starved and tortured by the adults paid to protect them.
R.L.C. was forced to eat dog food from a can and then put the remains of the can in the dog bowl outside, while both children were subject to slapping, punching, kicking and whipping assaults.
By February 2021, La Prairie found that R.L.C. was so emaciated he looked like a skeleton and had “the appearance of a child from the Holocaust.” Despite this, his foster parents continued to beat him.
Later that month, the abuse of R.L.C. intensified and the boy died from blunt force injuries to the head, days after suffering a traumatic brain injury in an attack on Feb. 26, 2021.
“He was born with disabilities that told me he wouldn’t live past two,” said his father.
“He lived to be 11 years old. It was three days before his 12th birthday.”
The abusive former foster parents were sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter and six years for aggravated assault.
R.C. said the horrific details that emerged in court broke him.
“I couldn’t believe what I heard and I wanted to die. I can’t handle this kind of pain,” he told Global News.
“I kept seeing them feed him dog crap locked in that kennel, poking him with two-by-fours, the dad making his own son do it to him too, try to teach him how to abuse him. It’s really sick and it’s really hurtful.”
R.C. said the abuse of his two children also greatly impacted their mother, who recently passed away.
Identified only as M.P. in court documents, the mother was able to provide a victim impact statement about the loss of her son prior to her passing.
M.P. noted she was “struggling to cope with the gravity of losing her child,” and described an increase in her substance misuse as a means of numbing her pain. She also said she felt untrusting of child protection services who were “unable to keep her child safe.”
Amid multiple calls for her resignation over the shocking case, Mitzi Dean, British Columbia’s minister responsible for child welfare, told Global News Tuesday she’s “absolutely committed to continuing the work” to improve safety and quality of life for all kids in foster care.
When asked if he had a message for Dean, R.C. said he wants the minister to take accountability.
“You think that you’re going to keep your job and that you did all the right things?” he said.
“The death of my son and the abuse of his little sister, thank God she’s still alive, you’ve done wrong, you should be held accountable for neglect.”
R.C. said he also blames the system for his son’s death in government care.
“It’s not this system’s fault today, it’s the facts that it’s been based on over the past 100 years for my people,” R.C. said.
“It’s meant for white people.”
R.C. wants more transparency within the MCFD so that parents know what is going on with their children.
“It’s just too much to believe that someone could do that to an innocent beautiful little boy,” he said.
“I’m here to fight and I’m here to make things right for my son.”
In order to survive the trauma, R.C. said he “reframed” to focus on positive memories with his son.
He is now on a healing path he said, and working on building a workshop he can take on the road to share his son’s story, and help others experiencing trauma.
If you’d like to connect with R.C. for more information or to help with his healing journey, you can reach him by email.