“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
— Dante Alighieri (often paraphrased from Inferno, though the attribution is debated)
"Doctor Shortage or Systemic Failure? Canada’s Medical Crisis Is Not an Excuse for Complicity"
We need more doctors. But we don’t need predators in white coats.
Across Canada, the headlines are damning. Not isolated incidents. Not rare exceptions. Patterned rot: Let`s start in the East.
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"Former Halifax doctor changes election on sexual assault, choking charges."
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"N.S. doctor altered records to hide sex assaults, trial told."
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"Former Halifax hospital employee facing sexual assault charge."
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"Halifax police say no charges for ex-RCMP doctor after sex assault allegations."
And yet, amid this grotesque pattern of abuse, our national conversation about the medical crisis reads like a bureaucrat's memo.
Shortages. Workload. Retention. Training capacity. Credential recognition.
Meanwhile, what should be an absolute—public trust and patient safety—has become negotiable. Conditional. Even disposable.
Let’s be clear: we do need more doctors. Canada is in a full-blown healthcare crisis.
Wait times are catastrophic, rural communities are abandoned, and current practitioners are drowning in red tape, paperwork, and burnout.
We’ve built a system where access to care depends more on your postal code than your symptoms.
But here’s the line we’re not allowed to say out loud:
We can’t fix our doctor shortage by turning a blind eye to predators in the system.
A System That Protects Itself
Medical education is elite, expensive, exclusive—and worse, it’s insulated.
There’s a cultural shield around physicians that warps accountability. Allegations of sexual assault? Often quietly “handled.”
Moved to a new hospital. Slap-on-the-wrist disciplinary panels. A name change, a jurisdiction hop, and suddenly a disgraced physician is back with a stethoscope and a fresh start.
We demand godlike perfection from family doctors when it comes to managing disease and trauma.
But when the crime is committed by the doctor, suddenly the standards evaporate.
Suddenly, there are “complexities.”
Suddenly, the very system that couldn't find enough hands to treat the sick manages to find endless ways to protect the abuser.
The Price of Power
Let’s talk about the unspoken price doctors pay—or don’t pay—when they violate that sacred oath. We expect family doctors to:
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Accept lower compensation than specialists.
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Run small businesses without institutional support.
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Pay rent, hire staff, chase reimbursements, manage overhead.
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Work 60-hour weeks while being on-call for 24 more.
But what happens when one of them crosses the line from exhausted to exploitative?
When they touch a patient inappropriately, falsify records, or commit outright assault?
Too often, the system flinches.
Accountability is viewed as a “risk” to retention.
Punishment is whispered as if it's a threat to the profession’s dignity.
Consequences are debated, not enforced.
We are told: “But we need doctors.” No. What we need are good doctors.
Safe doctors. Ethical doctors. Human doctors.
Because here’s the thing: it’s not just a few bad apples. It’s an orchard that's been fertilized with silence and shielded from scrutiny for decades.
Reform Starts at the Root
If we want to address Canada’s health care collapse without enabling systemic rot, we need to stop pretending that expanding medical school admissions alone will solve it.
That’s like widening a pipe with a leak and pretending the flood will go away.
Let’s rebuild, not just scale.
Here's what that looks like:
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Link admission to ethical screening, not just academic merit. We don’t need the smartest sociopath in the room. We need emotionally intelligent, community-rooted professionals who understand what it means to be entrusted with vulnerable lives.
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Overhaul licensing boards and disciplinary panels. Bring in independent public oversight. Peer review cannot be self-policing when the stakes are rape, abuse, or fatal negligence.
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Make abuse reporting transparent and mandatory. No more quiet settlements. No more reassignments. If a doctor commits sexual assault, they don’t deserve another patient. They deserve a courtroom.
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Public registries of complaints and license suspensions. Patients deserve informed consent not just about treatments, but about who is treating them.
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Protect whistleblowers. Nurses, admin staff, and even patients often witness red flags long before formal investigations begin. Create real mechanisms for them to speak up—without fear of losing their job or being sued into silence.
Bottom Line: If You Break the Oath, You Pay the Price
We are in desperate need of doctors—but desperation cannot justify corruption.
You don’t get to molest patients and keep your license.
You don’t get to choke someone and call it “misconduct.”
You don’t get to rewrite your records and stay in the game.
The oath means nothing if we don’t enforce it.
The Canadian medical system must choose: rehabilitation, or rot.
If we build our health care system on compromise, on silence, and on fear of losing numbers, we will not just lose public trust—we will lose lives.
Because people will stop showing up to be treated.
And when trust in medicine dies, so does health.
It’s time to say what should have been obvious all along:
We don’t need more doctors at any cost. We need more doctors who understand the cost of breaking the public trust.
Sources & Citations:
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Annals of Family Medicine, 2024 Report on Ontario MD Workforce
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CBC News: Multiple reports on Halifax-area doctor sexual assault charges
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CMAJ: "Rebuilding Trust in the Medical Profession"
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Queen’s Lakeridge Program: Family Medicine Education Reform
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