Criminal conviction, 10 years on sex offender registry: Ontario surgeon stripped of licence

An Ontario surgeon convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting a hospital employee and placed on the National Sex Offender Registry has been stripped of licence to practice medicine in the province and ordered to pay $6,000 in hearing costs to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Dr. Jeffrey Gennady Kolbasnik, a general surgeon from Milton, Ont., was charged in November 2018 of sexual assault under the Criminal Code of Canada, after a housekeeper at the hospital where he worked accused him of fondling her breast without her consent. An Ontario Court of Justice found Dr. Kolbasnik guilty and in January 2021 gave him a suspended sentence and 12 months of probation and imposed a victim surcharge of $100. The court also ordered him to provide samples for a national DNA databank and to comply for 10 years with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act. Read: Toronto anesthesiologist gets 10-year jail term for sex assault Dr. Kolbasnik, a past president of the Ontario Association of General Surgeons, appealed his criminal conviction but the court dismissed his appeal last October. According to the decision document written by the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal, the Ontario court’s findings were shaped by three interactions between Dr. Kolbasnik and the housekeeper who accused him of sexual assault. In the first interaction, Dr. Kolbasnik asked the woman for a hug and a kiss. In the second interaction, he massaged her shoulders and moved his hands towards her breasts, asking if “that was far enough.” He also hugged and kissed her during this second incident. In a subsequent interaction, Dr. Kolbasnik hugged and kissed the woman, and touched her breast. In its decision document, the tribunal noted that the court described these interactions as Dr. Kolbasnik “exerting pressure” in subtle ways on the housekeeper. “He did not physically force himself upon her. He remained friendly at all times but her persistently tried to hug her and kiss her and eventually advanced to the point that he fondled her breast, all in an effort to see how far he could take this,” the decision document quoted the court. It was the third interaction, where Dr. Kolbasnik touched the woman’s breast, that led to a guilty finding on the charge of sexual assault. “We find Dr. Kolbasnik has committed an act of professional misconduct in that he has been found guilty of an offence that is relevant to his suitability to practise … and has engaged in conduct that is disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional,” wrote the tribunal, adding that the housekeeper’s impact statement was admitted into evidence so she could have a voice in the proceeding. In the housekeeper’s statement, wrote the tribunal, she “expresses the significant and ongoing harm done to her, both personally and professionally, by the sexual assault. She notes Dr. Kolbasnik was supposed to be a professional, but each time he took more and more, scarring her every time, and then simply carried on with his day.” Read: Former Regina doctor accused of sexual assault says he was shocked by complaints

Criminal conviction, 10 years on sex offender registry: Ontario surgeon stripped of licence

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