Judge upholds decision to dismiss medical resident
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission’s decision to throw out a complaint filed against the University of Saskatchewan by a former medical resident, who was dismissed after multiple complaints about his “unprofessional and inappropriate” behaviour, was the correct one, ruled a Court of Queen’s Bench judge who upheld the commission’s ruling
Aaron Anderson made his complaint to the commission in June 2015, a month after his dismissal, alleging the university’s College of Medicine did not accommodate his claimed disability of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Human Rights Commission’s chief commissioner in February dismissed the complaint because it had been dealt with by the university, which also had jurisdiction.
In a decision filed last month, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Danyliuk threw out Anderson’s request for a judicial review of the chief commissioner’s ruling, arguing again that Anderson’s issues were appropriately dealt with by the university, and that he appeared to be “miffed that he didn’t get to choose the forum which would adjudicate this issue.”
“Had Anderson genuinely held concerns as to the sufficiency of the accommodation provided by the university he could have raised those with the University at the time and/or complained to the Human Rights Commission about the university’s failings,” Danyliuk wrote.
Anderson began his residency in family medicine at the university in 2010, and eventually a “troublingly long” list of complaints about his behaviour accumulated, according to the decision. He was dismissed in May 2015 after being in the program for four years, “an unacceptable length of time to not have mastered basic communication and professional skills,” the decision states.
In one instance, a patient told Anderson she had never before taken oral contraception and he replied, “What? Are you a Catholic or something?” In another case, an emergency room nurse overheard Anderson tell a woman he would “use a cold speculum” on her the next time he saw her.