Government Approaches to Child Neglect and Mistreatment in Nineteenth-century Ontario

In 1893 Ontario introduced its first comprehensive child protection system. The concept of neglect and the assumption of societal and governmental responsibility for disadvantaged children was not new, however; it had evolved during Ontario's first century. By 1874 legislation provided a detailed and sophisticated description of children in need of protection and of deficient parents; a process for removing children from their parents and the authority to refuse their return; a new type of institution to care for these children; systematic government grants for children's homes and their accountability to the state; and simpler incorporation by which charitable institutions could assume the authority they needed over children in their care. Ontario's child protection system was thus built on a firm foundation.