A court has ordered a new penalty hearing at Ontario’s medical regulator for a Toronto physician who was suspended for six months for groping four female patients, calling Dr. Javad Peirovy’s punishment “clearly unfit.”

The panel of Divisional Court judges also delivered a strong rebuke Tuesday of the discipline committee at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), which had already been criticized for years by experts and victims as being at times too lenient on doctors found to have sexually abused patients.

“The public’s confidence in the medical profession demands more from the disciplinary process than recent sexual abuse discipline cases suggest,” Justice James Ramsay wrote on behalf of the panel, which included Justices Anne Molloy and Michael Dambrot.

“In the case of sexual touching of breasts of multiple female patients under the pretense of a medical exam, I would expect the committee to be debating whether to revoke the member’s registration or impose a suspension measured in years, as opposed to months.”

Peirovy had denied the allegations of sexual abuse before the discipline committee. His lawyer, David Porter, did not return a request for comment for this article.

Porter had argued before the court in December that past discipline cases at the college involving sexual abuse showed that Peirovy’s suspension was well within the range of appropriate penalties, but the judges suggested the penalties in the other cases were not tough enough.

“The facts of these cases are base. It is depressing to review them,” Ramsay wrote.

“They do little to encourage confidence in the committee’s approach to eradicating sexual abuse in the profession. Consistency in the imposition of sentence is a proper consideration, but a litany of clearly unfit penalties does not justify the penalty imposed in the present case.

“The penalty imposed in the present case was clearly unfit. It was inadequate to protect the public and vindicate the integrity of the profession.”

The discipline committee is independent of the college. A panel of the committee, chaired by former CPSO president Dr. Marc Gabel, found in 2015 that Peirovy sexually abused the four women in the span of a few months in 2010. In April 2016, the panel suspended him for six months despite the urging of the college’s lawyer to revoke his licence.

That led to two rare moves on the part of the college: its registrar publicly expressed disappointment with the discipline committee, and the CPSO appealed the penalty decision to Divisional Court, arguing the public was at “significant risk” while Peirovy practiced at a Toronto walk-in clinic.

The college said in a statement to the Star that it was pleased with the appeal’s outcome, and that a new penalty hearing will be scheduled at the earliest available date.

“Sexual abuse is a serious violation of the doctor-patient relationship. As we have advocated for in our sexual abuse initiative, and set out in our proposal to the Minister of Health to amend legislation, penalties for sex abuse must contribute meaningfully to the eradication of sexual abuse in the profession,” the college said.

The legal wrangling underscores what critics have said are fundamental problems with the system designed to protect Ontarians from abusive doctors. That was the focus of a 2014 Star investigation that in turn led to a task force report on the issue.

While most forms of sexual abuse, including penetration, oral sex and masturbation, lead to mandatory revocation of a doctor’s licence, the penalty for groping remains at the discretion of the discipline committee.

Last December, the provincial government proposed new legislation that would expand the list of acts of sexual abuse that lead to mandatory revocation, which would include groping. Health Minister Eric Hoskins has said he hopes the legislation is passed by spring.

“This (court) decision acknowledges the longstanding failure of the college discipline process to enforce a zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse of patients,” said medical malpractice lawyer Paul Harte, who was not involved in the case.

“The current regulations put in place many years ago aim to eradicate sexual abuse perpetrated by health professionals. The deterrent effect of this decision will hopefully go a long way to meeting that objective.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Peirovy now practices at Ultimate Diagnostics in North York. One of the conditions on his licence is that he not practice on women unless supervised by a female health professional.

He pleaded guilty in criminal court in 2013 to two counts of simple assault relating to two of the patients who were later the focus of his disciplinary hearing at the college. He was given a conditional discharge and 18 months’ probation and was ordered by the court to take counselling.

At the hearing before the disciplinary committee, Peirovy was found to have placed his stethoscope on the nipples of two patients and cupped their breasts. Regarding two others, he touched their nipples when “there was no clinical reason” to examine the women in that way, the panel found.

“These women have lost much of their trust in doctors, especially male doctors,” Ramsay wrote in Tuesday’s court decision. “A short suspension is clearly inadequate to deter others and to contribute meaningfully to the eradication of sexual abuse in the profession.”