‘A decisive error’: Surgeon who was suspended for five years over sexual abuse charge is acquitted by special tribunal

A Québec doctor who received a five-year suspension in 2021 after he was found guilty of sexually abusing a patient has won his appeal of the conviction and is now acquitted of all charges against him. Dr. Michel Chagnon, a Montreal plastic surgeon who was accused by a female patient of sexual actions that included stroking her hair inappropriately, exposing himself at the end of one appointment and pressing his erect penis against her buttocks, argued successfully that the disciplinary council of the Collège des médecins du Québec had made an error in accepting a conversation recorded by the patient as an admission of Dr. Chagnon’s guilt. “For the Court, the council made a decisive error here,” wrote the Tribunal des professions, a specialized court that hears disciplinary and administrative decisions for professionals in the province. “At no time during this conversation does (Dr. Chagnon) recognize a fact which could constitute conduct irreproachable. The council arrives at this conclusion by deduction using certain passages, but he does not identify any particular fact.” Read: Suspension and $29K in costs for doctor who let nurses do unsupervised cosmetic procedures According to the tribunal’s decision document, the patient—who had seen Dr. Gagnon for breast augmentation and abdominoplasty—had returned to the clinic and secretly audio-recorded her appointment because she was not sure if Dr. Chagnon had actually exposed his penis to her and if she had performed fellatio on him. The patient had filed a complaint with Montreal police in March 2019 but in her videotaped testimony two months later, she could not remember whether or not she had performed oral sex on Dr. Chagnon. In November of that same year, during a conversation with the college’s disciplinary council, she said she was certain she had performed oral sex at Dr. Chagnon’s request. But in the audio recording of her appointment with Dr. Chagnon, the patient “never addresses directly the fact that the appellant allegedly exhibited his penis, asked for fellatio and that she would have complied, even if her goal in going to confront him was to find out if this event had really happened,” wrote the tribunal. Read: ‘Lost it all’: Doctor imprisoned for fentanyl trafficking is rebuilding his life—one story at a time In addition, the patient can be heard in the recording stating she was “not sure” she had felt an erection while Dr. Chagnon was standing behind her, noted the tribunal. However, the recording does contain an acknowledgement from Dr. Chagnon about feeling discomfort over a moment of weakness. The nature of this action was not specified on the recording, but Dr. Chagnon has maintained that it referred to the fact that he had returned, for a few seconds, a kiss from the patient. The police never filed charges against Dr. Chagnon, citing concerns over the case’s ability to meet the required burden of proof. The Collège des médecins du Québec imposed a five-year suspension on Dr. Chagnon on November 11, 2021 but the Tribunal des professions granted him a reprieve and lifted the suspension on January 31, 2022. As part of its latest decision, the tribunal has ordered the college to pay hearing costs. Read: Three strikes, suspended for 18 months: Doctor asked three women employees to perform a scrotal exam on him

‘A decisive error’: Surgeon who was suspended for five years over sexual abuse charge is acquitted by special tribunal

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