Reporting Child Abuse in the Province of Ontario: Interpretational Problems in the Legislation and Associated Government Guidelines

The present paper examines the child abuse reporting laws for the province of Ontario, and the associated interpretation of this legislation provided by the Ministry of Community and Social Services, from the perspective of whether or not these documents provide an adequate set of guidelines for the professional who encounters child abuse in the context of carrying out his or her duties. It is concluded that both documents suffer from important deficiencies of interpretation and definition, and the possible implications of these are discussed.

Le présent article examine les lois ontariennes concernant l'obligation de rapporter les mauvais traitements subis par les enfants; on analyse aussi l'interprétation que fait de cette législation le ministère des services sociaux et communautaires en se demandant si ces documents fournissent des lignes de conduite adéquates aux professionnles qui, dans leur travail, rencontrent de tels cas. On tire la conclusion que chacun des deux documents comporte d'importantes déficiences d'interprétation et de définition et on discute des implications possibles de ces faiblesses.