The ministry that is supposed to be protecting British Columbia’s kids made what the children’s representative says was a “massive error,” resulting in the torturous death of an 11-year-old boy at the hands of those who were approved to be his caregivers.

The boy’s death is not an outlier, Jennifer Charlesworth said in her latest report released Tuesday, but rather an example of ways the child welfare system has let down children and families in B.C. and across Canada, despite decades of reports making hundreds of recommendations for change.