Ottawa doctor speaks out after Windsor man charged with threats against health-care worker

An Ottawa doctor has iden‐ tified herself as the target of alleged harassment and intimidation that resulted in police charging a man under a new law meant to shield health-care workers from intimidation.

Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, an outspoken family doctor who's running to be a trustee with the Ottawa-Carleton Dis‐ trict School Board, said she and her staff have been sub‐ jected to hateful calls, emails and even in-person visits dur‐ ing the pandemic.

But she said it was two phone messages left following a TV interview in early Sep‐ tember that led to the charges.

"I won't allow people to threaten and intimidate and think they can get away with it. They can't," she said.

Ottawa police announced Thursday they're searching for 58-year-old Louis Mertze‐ los, who has been charged with hate-motivated crimes after an investigation in‐ to "multiple threats made by phone targeting a person working in the health-care field."

It's very aggressive and it's very anti-Semitic and it's misogynist. - Dr. Nili KaplanMyrth

The alleged offences in‐ clude harassing communica‐ tion, harassment by repeated communication, and mischief and intimidation of a health service. A warrant has been is‐ sued for his arrest.

Police declined to share the name of the victim, but Kaplan-Myrth said it was her, adding she's been in con‐ tact with the service through‐ out the process and they in‐ formed her Thursday morn‐ ing about their intention to is‐ sue a press release. She has also posted about the charges on social media.

The doctor shared tran‐ scripts of the messages left on her office answering machine with CBC.

In one, the caller de‐ scribes Kaplan-Myrth as "un‐ hinged" and twice refers to her using a racial slur aimed at Jewish people.

"It's very aggressive and it's very anti-Semitic and it's misogynist," she said.

"This isn't somebody who is disagreeing with public health policy, this is a person who is looking to try to make me feel scared."

No reported decisions under new law

Kaplan-Myrth said she's reported harassment to po‐ lice before, including a death threat, but this time investiga‐ tors were able to track down a suspect because he didn't make any attempt to hide his phone number and the office had recordings of the mes‐ sages.

The truly frightening thing is that it feels like we have normalized this type of vitriol. - Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth

"For somebody to phone and not even try to block their number is to just say 'Yeah, I don't care. Here I am, come and get me,' as though there are going to be no con‐ sequences," she said.

The Liberal government in‐ troduced legislation in No‐ vember 2021 that made it ille‐ gal to intimidate or obstruct health-care workers in deliver‐ ing care as a way to protect patients and health-care workers from abuse.

It only came into force in January of this year, according to criminal defence lawyer Michelle Johal, who said she wasn't able to find any re‐ ported decisions interpreting the charge.

"This is a new amendment to the criminal code, so if there were a conviction ... it would be, I suppose a prece‐ dent," she said.

Florian Martin-Bariteau, an assistant professor of law and technology at the University of Ottawa, said he's not aware of any convictions.

"I would expect law en‐ forcement and parties to heavily advertise [that]," he said.

Doctor says vitriol has been normalized Two people were charged with intimidation of a health service worker following a protest outside the home of the Peterborough area's med‐ ical officer of health. However, court staff told CBC those charges have since been with‐ drawn.

Two people were charged in March with the intimida‐ tion offence in Dartmouth, N.S., provincial court after be‐ ing accused of organizing a protest at the home of Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health. Those charges re‐ main pending, court staff said.

The Department of Justice says it doesn't collect data on the number of charges relat‐ ed to the new amendment.

"I do anticipate that pro‐ testers may take issue with these provisions," Johal said. "But the reality is that the right to protest peacefully does not extend to intimida‐ tion or any conduct with the intent to provoke a state of fear."

Dr. Alika Lafontaine, the president of the Canadian Medical Association, said that the new law may encourage more doctors to speak out.

But he said, "[The] fre‐ quency and intensity of situa‐ tions that probably rise to the level of this legislation being used as a tool are probably much higher than those that actually get reported.

"We're going to work hard to make sure that we get a more even ratio."

Kaplan-Myrth said she feels her case is "clear cut" and she doesn't believe it will be dropped, but noted once she'd submitted her com‐ plaint the situation was in the hands of police and the courts.

"The truly frightening thing is that it feels like we have normalized this type of vitriol," she said.

"We can't go around cow‐ ering to these kinds of bullies and I just won't abide it."