Patient sexually assaulted by former Manitoba doctor left clinic 'horrified and in shock,' court hears

Female patients who weresexually assaulted by aformer Manitoba doctor told a court Thursday they were left feeling"horrified" and violatedby the assaults.

Manitoba Court of King's Bench heardvictim impact statements from some of the women at a sentencing hearing forArcel Bissonnette, 64, who assaulted sevenwomenduring medical appointments and examinations.

Crown prosecutors argue Bissonnette was in a position of trust and authority over each of the victims, which he breached when they came to him for medical care, and should besentenced to a total of 18 years in prison.

The defence is seeking a nine-year sentence, citing Bissonette's age, guilty pleas and the absence of a criminal record.

"Eighteen years is no question a crushing sentence," and the Crown's request is "harsh and excessive," Bissonnette's lawyer Lisa LaBossiere told the court.

The nine years the defenceproposed is still"a significant sentence," she said.

Justice Sadie Bond reserved her decision on Thursday. Bissonnette is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29.

Bissonnette worked as a doctor at the Ste. Anne Hospital and at the Sainte-Anne Medical Centre in the smalltown, about 40 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

Following a trial last year, he was convicted in November 2023of sexually assaulting fivepatients during medical appointments between 2001 and 2017. In February, just days before his trial was set to begin in connection withother charges, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two other women in 2005 and 2011.

"Arcel Bissonnette enjoyed the privileged position of being a doctor in the small rural community of Ste. Anne," Crown attorney Renee Lagimodiere told JusticeBondThursday morning.

"Along with that privilege came unquestioning trust from the patients who saw him for medical appointments," said Lagimodiere.

"Under the guise of medical examination, he breached that trust in the most egregious of ways."

Some of the women Bissonnette assaultedmade victim impact statements in court Thursday. None can be identified due to a publication ban.

One of the women, who was sexually assaulted in August 2001, recalled how she went to see Bissonnette because of abdominal pain after a surgical procedure when she was sexually assaulted.

'It should have been a safe place'

"I found myself in the most vulnerable position that a woman can ever find herself in, which is to be fully naked in a small room, alonewith a man I've never met," the woman told the court.

"I had no choice because I needed urgent medical attention."

She told the court she gave up her modesty and her own personal boundaries in order to trust a medical professional.

"Despite my discomfort and vulnerability, I believed it was a safe place. It should have been a safe place," the woman told the court. "Instead, I discovered that a doctor's exam room can be a place where a professional abuses his power over me."

Another woman, who was sexually assaulted in June 2015, told the court she saw Bissonnette for a followup after going to the ER due to a concern she had with her pregnancy.

"My vulnerability was taken advantage of," the woman told the court. "I left the medical clinic horrified and in shock."

The woman said the legal process has left her in a "fight or flight state for years," and said she can't help butthink the assault will impact her in ways she doesn't know just yet.

Another woman who was a longtime patient of Bissonnettewas sexually assaulted during physical examinations on two occasions in 2005, when she was in her early 20s.

"I feel as if my family doctortreated me not as a person but as an object," the woman told the court. "I should've felt respected, but I felt violated."

She told the court she's attended numerous therapy sessions, which have provided her with coping tools, but said she continues tocompartmentalizeand distanceherself from her trauma.

The Crown argues there was a pattern of behaviour by Bissonette that shows there's a risk he could reoffend.

He hasn't practised medicine since November 2020, when the initial charges were laid.

In January 2024, prior to his guilty plea, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba revoked Bissonnette's licence to practise medicine, calling his actions "disgraceful and dishonourable."

His lawyers argue he's a low risk to reoffend because he lost his medical licence.

Patient sexually assaulted by former Manitoba doctor left clinic 'horrified and in shock,' court hears

2 months ago

Duration 1:40

One of the seven female patients who were sexually assaulted by a former Manitoba doctor told a court Thursday she left his clinic "horrified and shocked" after the assault.