Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is harm done to an older person by someone in a special relationship to the older person.

ACE can give legal advice to the older adult whose rights are in issue in cases of neglect or financial, physical, sexual, and emotional elder abuse. We may refer a caller to the police where a crime has been committed. We may also give general legal information and referrals without legal advice to persons other than the older adult whose rights are in issue.

Elder abuse includes:

Physical abuse such as slapping, pushing, beating or forced confinement;
Financial abuse such as stealing, fraud, extortion or misusing a power of attorney;
Sexual abuse as sexual assault or any unwanted form of sexual activity;
Neglect, failing to give an older person in your care food, medical attention, or other necessary care or abandoning an older person in your care; and
Emotional abuse as in treating an older person like a child or humiliating, insulting, frightening, threatening or ignoring an older person.

Elder abuse can sometimes also be a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada. Examples of possible elder abuse crimes include:

Physical abuse such as assault, assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm, aggravated assault, sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated sexual assault, forcible confinement, murder or manslaughter;
Financial abuse such as theft, theft by holding power of attorney, stopping mail with intent, extortion, forgery or fraud;
Sexual abuse such as sexual assault with a weapon or aggravated sexual assault;
Neglect such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm or death or failure to provide necessaries of life; and
Emotional abuse such as intimidation, uttering threats or harassing telephone calls.