Carleton University rescinds Barwin’s honorary degree

Carleton University has rescinded the honorary degree it awarded in 2009 to disgraced Ottawa fertility specialist Dr. Norman Barwin.

The university’s senate, according to a statement from Carleton, decided on Friday to take back the prestigious honour effective immediately “on the basis of incontrovertible evidence of malpractice.”

It is yet another blemish on a career and professional reputation reduced to ruins.

Carleton’s decision comes five years after Barwin admitted to professional misconduct regarding three clients at his Broadview Avenue clinic who were inseminated with the wrong sperm.

Barwin told a disciplinary hearing he had no idea how it happened and was banned from practising medicine for two months. He agreed to permanently end his fertility practice.

That same year, he resigned his appointment to the Order of Canada, to which he was named in 1997 for his work on women’s reproductive health. Among other things, he had been president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada and Planned Parenthood Ottawa.

Barwin settled out of court in 1998 with a lesbian couple after he allegedly used the wrong sperm donor.

In 2015, a paternity test confirmed Barwin is the biological father of Ottawa woman Kat Palmer, whose DNA was subsequently used to link Barwin to 10 other cases.

The following year, law firm Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP began work on a class-action lawsuit that now involves some 150 former patients of Barwin and their children. The law firm has said problems with his fertility practice, including using his own sperm and using the wrong sperm, could stretch back decades.

Carleton’s policy on rescinding honorary degrees, which was developed to reflect existing policies at other universities, was approved by the school’s senate earlier this year.

Barwin received the honour the same year it was presented to several distinguished Canadians, including former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent and humanitarian Stephen Lewis.

CHRIS YOUNG FILES Dr. Norman Barwin, seen during a 2013 hearing at which he admitted three clients at his clinic were inseminated with the wrong sperm, has had his honorary degree rescinded from Carleton University.