From theStar.com
In the words of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the case of Toronto’s Dr. Javad Peirovy “is amongst the most egregious examples of sexual abuse by physicians.”
Yet Peirovy was given only a six-month suspension in April by the CPSO’s independent discipline committee, after it found he had groped four female patients. He had pleaded guilty in criminal court in 2013 to simple assault in the case of two patients.
The medical regulatory body, which has previously expressed disappointment with the committee over the fact Peirovy’s licence wasn’t revoked, has now taken the doctor to court.
The college is asking a panel of Divisional Court judges to order a new discipline hearing — arguing the public was at “significant risk” while Peirovy was at work.
“It is the appellant’s position that revocation, which was the penalty it sought before the committee, is the appropriate penalty in this case, given the utterly egregious and deliberate nature of the respondent’s sexual misconduct towards his female patients,” says the college’s factum (a written submission), filed in court this week.
Peirovy has always denied the discipline committee allegations against him, and his lawyer did not return requests for comment this week.
Peirovy’s position at the discipline committee was that the patients misunderstood the examinations of them, according to the college’s factum. He acknowledged that he would place his hand under a patient’s bra during an examination, but he denied that any of his actions were sexually motivated.
The CPSO’s appeal highlights a loophole in current legislation governing the conduct of physicians in Ontario, which critics have long decried as outdated.
Revocation of the medical licence is mandatory for nearly every other form of sexual abuse, including penetration, oral sex and masturbation. But groping remains a grey area, and revocation is entirely at the discretion of the discipline committee panel hearing the case.
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