MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Colleagues:
I
photo: D.W. Dorken
Joel Kirsh, MD
College President
We simply do not
believe that the
creation of a new
agency will result in a
better experience for
patients or in better
outcomes for the
public.
n my time as a member of
Council, I have been impressed with the strength of
the College’s commitment to
doing all that can be done to support patients and protect them from
sexual abuse. Thus, it was welcome
news to all of us around the Council
table to learn of the government
of Ontario’s announcement to give
priority to modernizing the RHPA
to achieve this goal.
Over the past two years, we have
made substantial improvements
to our processes and practices to
ensure that individual patients and
the broader public are protected.
The work is ongoing. We have also
asked for changes to the legislation
that will strengthen penalties, make
sexual misconduct investigations
and prosecutions more effective and
efficient, and better empower and
support patients involved in the
discipline process. If the government
agrees to our proposed legislative
changes – and given the details in
the Minister’s recent announcement,
it looks like we are indeed on the
same page – it would make penal-
ties for sexual abuse in Ontario the
toughest in any jurisdiction.
While we fully support, or support in principle many of the recommendations in the Ministry’s Sexual
Abuse Task Force report, we do oppose a couple of recommendations.
Most significantly, we oppose the
report’s recommendation to remove
from all health regulatory colleges
the jurisdiction over all responses to
sexual abuse of their members, and
move to a new centralized agency/
independent body for public education, complaints investigations and
disciplinary hearings.
We believe that the College’s
extensive experience, grounded in
many years of investigating and
holding hearings into physician
sexual abuse, is too valuable to be
abandoned. We have the clinical
and investigative expertise that is
critical for the best possible outcome
for the public. Clinical expertise
(understanding the context) helps
to parse out the clinical and sexual
abuse issues throughout the process.
For example, it is absolutely essential
to understand the clinical indicaIssue 3, 2016 Dialogue
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