Three more women accuse prominent doctor of groping
Ahead of talks in Montreal, chambers of commerce make case for trade agreement
As Dr. Brian Thicke prepares to face a public discipline hearing for allegedly sexually abusing a patient, three other women have come forward to the Star alleging they were also groped by the prominent Brampton physician during a period stretching back 40 years.
Critics have also questioned how the province’s medical regulator, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, dealt with Thicke’s case, given that it was aware as early as1994 of an allegation that the doctor performed an inappropriate breast examination, after the patient in that case went to the police.
But the college today refuses to say what — if anything — was done, saying legislation prohibits it from doing so.
Thicke, father of the late actor Alan Thicke and grandfather of singer Robin Thicke, retains a licence to practise and privileges at Brampton Civic Hospital, according to his profile on the CPSO website.
Once dubbed Brampton’s “most valuable physician” and fêted at a gala attended by former mayor Susan Fennell, Thicke has no history of being disciplined by the college, according to a spokesperson for the regulator.
Thicke, 88, was ordered in December to face a hearing before the college’s discipline committee for allegedly sexually abusing Lisa Fruitman by groping her breasts in 1993 and 1995 during a physical required for a private pilot’s licence. The hearing has not yet been scheduled.
MONTREAL— Continental business leaders say it is time to put additional pressure on negotiators from Canada, the United States and Mexico gathering in Montreal on Tuesday to reach a deal to save the North American Free Trade Agreement.
There has not been much cause for optimism as the three countries arrive for the sixth round of talks aimed at renewing the 1994 trade agreement.
But the representatives of 25 chambers of commerce, who have been closely following the talks for months, met to underline the necessity of keeping the pact in place and discuss what could be a last-ditch strategy to sway U.S. President Donald Trump’s recalcitrant administration.
“It’s time for our communities to start weighing in on this . . . through our business communities and the workers they are employing that are very much the beneficiaries of this,” said Janet De Silva, president of the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
She said 19-million jobs in the three countries are dependent on trade while in some vital sectors, such as airplane and automobile manufacturing, parts zip back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border before making their way to market.
Richard Perez, president of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said that as a former politician, he understands the power and influence that voters can bring to bear on the negotiation.
“We’ve got to do a better job of convincing constituents, who are also our president’s constituents, that it does make sense,” he said.
“It’s a political question and political wills change with constituency pressure.”
Rona Ambrose, a former Conservative cabinet minister now serving as a member of Canada’s NAFTA advisory council, said on the weekend that the mood heading into this weeklong round of talks is gloomy.
“There is still a shred of optimism,” she told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday. But the expectation is that it’s only a matter of time before the Trump administration decides to “pull the plug.”
Trump has called NAFTA a “disaster” and a “bad joke” that has resulted in lost American jobs.
But Perez, who served in former U.S. president Bill Clinton’s administration, said he is still optimistic a deal can be reached.
“Now is the time when the climate around the discussions is starting to be much more reasonable. We’re slowing down what’s happening and I think that gives us an opportunity to really press our case about why it makes sense,” he said.
“Time is not our enemy. Time is our friend.”
That time should be used to convince ordinary Americans to send a strong message about the necessity of a continental trade deal to safeguard their jobs, said Todd Letts, head of the Brampton Board of Trade.
“Then, in turn, they can somehow mobilize their efforts as ordinary workers to their respective governments, state and federal, to help legislators understand in both red and blue states the importance of NAFTA,” he said in an interview.
While the smaller economies of Canada and Mexico are largely convinced of NAFTA’s advantages, De Silva admitted there are still strong prejudices against the trade deal in the U.S.
She spoke of one New York-based business owner who says that without NAFTA his company’s operations would likely shift to Mexico, which is the primary market for the company’s products.
“He says his workforce leaves on a Friday evening believing how important NAFTA is and comes back Monday morning not believing it any more because family and friends say it’s taking away jobs,” she said.
In a speech to the business leaders Monday, International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada is committed to a modernized trade deal. But he said it needs to include environmental and labour protections and more opportunity for young people, women, Indigenous people and small-and-medium-sized business, which he said had not been well served by the existing deal over the last quarter century.
Dominique Anglade, Quebec’s minister of economy, science and innovation, mentioned that many products manufactured in Quebec use materials and input from workers in Mexico and the U.S.
There are many more harmonious examples of the NAFTA countries working together for a common good, Champagne said.
“This is what makes this arrangement and this agreement great. We just don’t sell things to each other. We make things together. That makes the difference.”