Double Standard:

Psychiatrist has sex with patient in Alberta but maintains license in Ontario

May 8, 2008

Despite a national campaign to get doctors’ license suspensions enforced across the country, nothing has changed, say members of the Coalition of Provincial and Territorial Advisory Councils on the Status of Women.

“We tried to bring attention to the holes in the system earlier this year with the Hanley case,” says Leslie MacLeod, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Advisory Council on the Status of Women. “There’s very little if anything to stop suspended doctors from practicing in other regions if they’re already licensed there.”

The Coalition launched a Canada-wide campaign in reaction to the case of Dr. James Hanley. The psychiatrist was suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador while it investigated an allegation of a sexual relationship with a patient. Hanley also held a license in New Brunswick. He was allowed to practice at CFB Gagetown for 15 months after agreeing not to practice anywhere in Canada. The New Brunswick College did nothing until the Newfoundland and Labrador College officially stripped him of his license.

“Our warning seems to have fallen on deaf ears,” says MacLeod. “Now we’ve got another case where a doctor was being investigated in one province and remained licensed in another.”

MacLeod’s comments refer to the case of Dr. Jeremy Roberts. In March, 2008, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta revoked Roberts’ license to practice psychiatry. The College found him guilty of “unbecoming conduct,” including having sex with a patient. Roberts also holds a license in Ontario.

On Monday, a spokeswoman with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario told the Calgary Herald it has yet to determine whether or not any action will be taken in its jurisdiction.

The lack of action on the Ontario College’s part seriously concerns members of the Coalition of Advisory Councils.

“We sent several recommendations to medical and government officials earlier this year,” says Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Chairperson of the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women. “We outlined the need for information sharing and for each region to have the capacity to adopt the license restrictions and suspensions of other regions. Otherwise the Hanley case can keep happening.”

“Nothing has changed,” says MacLeod. “Regardless of whether or not Roberts has been practicing in Ontario, the point is, he’s been free to practice there the whole time he was under investigation in Alberta. Even now, after Alberta revoked his license, he’s free to see patients in Ontario. Who has been protecting the women of Ontario?”

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Ginette Petitpas-Taylor
Chairperson 
NBACSW 
Fredericton, NB 
506 444 4101

Leslie MacLeod
President
PACSW
St. John's, NL
709 753 7270