The Dr Marc Lacroix “exceeded the limit of what is acceptable” by inviting the population on the radio to “stop listening to the WHO” at the start of the pandemic and thus contravened the code of ethics of his profession, can we read in a recent decision of the Disciplinary Council of the College of Physicians of Quebec.
Posted at 5:29 p.m.
The Dr Lacroix was found guilty of two counts of offense against him by two of the three members of the Disciplinary Council. He was acquitted of five others. The Disciplinary Council had been called upon to rule on remarks made by the family doctor during radio interviews in the spring of 2020 as well as published on his Facebook page.
The Dr Lacroix is the founder and president of Lacroix Private Medicine, a network of eight private medical clinics across the province. The sanction of Dr Lacroix remains to be determined.
In the spring of 2020, at the very start of the pandemic, the Dr Lacroix had “gave several radio interviews in which he commented on the health measures put in place by the Quebec government”, can we read in the decision of the Disciplinary Council, rendered on June 23.
On May 8, 2020, on the airwaves on CHOI 98.1 FM with host Jeff Fillion, also spokesperson for Lacroix clinics, Dr.r Lacroix notably declared: “I think that the WHO [Organisation mondiale de la santé], from the start, was not credible in this crisis, hid information from the whole world, knowing very well that in China, something serious was happening. So let’s stop listening to the WHO. »
In the decision, two of the three members of the Disciplinary Council indicate that “a doctor who speaks publicly does not have the same freedom as an ordinary citizen given his status and the scope of his opinions on the population”.
For them, the fact that the Dr Lacroix “unreservedly attacked the WHO by accusing it of hiding information” is “not worthy of a doctor”. “The D.r Lacroix has gone too far. His remarks lacked restraint and nuance,” the decision reads.
Words on Facebook
Between July 19 and 29, 2020, the Dr Lacroix has also published more than forty messages on Facebook, including photos of Dr.r Horacio Arruda accompanied by the word “buffoon”. The Dr Lacroix also wrote “Pure madness” above a photo of Geneviève Guilbault accompanied by the mention “Wearing a mask compulsory until the discovery of a vaccine”.
The Dr Lacroix had also published a photo of Dr Arruda and François Legault below which a question was asked with a choice of answers: “Are these gentlemen 1 — Alzheimer? 2— Cretins or incompetent? 3— Malicious? 4— Committed to a hidden agenda? 5— Subject to higher orders? »
Two of the three members of the Disciplinary Board consider that “Dr Lacroix does not stop being a doctor when he expresses his opinions on social networks “and that several publications on the Facebook profile of Dr.r Lacroix constitute “acts derogatory to the honor and dignity of the profession”. The third member of the Disciplinary Board dissented and would have acquitted Dr.r Lacroix on all of the counts of offence.
Thirty complaints
Around 30 public complaints had been received by the College of Physicians about Dr.r Lacroix in the summer of 2020. Met by the Office of the Syndic of his professional order, Dr.r Lacroix had pledged to no longer give interviews regarding COVID-19 and to close his Facebook accounts.
But a citizen, stenographer Olivier Bolduc, who also plays politics for Québec solidaire, filed a private complaint against Dr.r Lacroix in August 2020. The complaint initially contained 12 counts of offence. But some counts were withdrawn by Mr. Bolduc or rejected by the court. So only seven chiefs remained.
In a written statement, the Dr Lacroix indicates that “three members of the Disciplinary Board [l] “have unanimously acquitted on five of the seven counts of offence”. Indeed, four counts of offense alleged against Dr Lacroix for making comments that went against the data of medical science.
If several of these comments were “undesirable from a doctor in the context of a global pandemic”, especially considering that the Dr Lacroix has no expertise in public health, the Disciplinary Council considers that these remarks were “at the limit of what is acceptable”.
The Disciplinary Board also unanimously dismissed the offense charge that accused Dr Lacroix for having invited citizens on Facebook to participate in a demonstration against the wearing of compulsory masks. Again, the Board finds that the Dr Lacroix acted “at the limit of what is ethically acceptable”.
“While we welcome the acquittal of five of the seven remaining counts in the private complaint, the disciplinary proceedings are still not final until the sanction on the two remaining counts has not been heard,” writes the Dr Lacroix, who specifies that his lawyers “will proceed to the analysis of the decision”.