‘Not something a doctor does’; former patient tells Ste. Anne MD’s sex-assault trial about traumatic internal exam

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This article was published 08/05/2023 (852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman who visited Dr. Arcel Bissonnette when she was pregnant said she was left “numb and scared” by a prenatal examination she alleged was clearly sexual.

“It was not something I had ever experienced that wasn’t sexual in nature,” the woman testified Monday. “It’s something you do with a partner, not something a doctor does.”

Bissonnette, 63, is on trial accused of sexually assaulting five female patients during examinations at the Ste. Anne Hospital and Seine Medical Centre.

The woman in court Monday testified she was experiencing severe cramps and abdominal pain when she went to the Ste. Anne Hospital emergency department May 24, 2015, and was treated by Bissonnette, the doctor on call.

“He asked me if anyone was following my pregnancy and said he could see me at his clinic,” the woman told court.

The woman made an appointment and on June 24 visited Bissonnette at his clinic.

“I was there for a checkup kind of thing and he ended up doing a vaginal exam,” she said.

The woman said she was on her back on an examination table, her feet in stirrups, as he rubbed lubricant in a repeated “U” motion over her labia and inside her vagina.

“He was very slowly rubbing my labia…. It made me feel really uncomfortable,” she said.

While she could not see Bissonnette’s hands, the woman said it felt like he wasn’t wearing gloves.

During an internal exam, Bissonnette repeatedly moved his fingers in and out of her vagina, she said.

The woman said for previous prenatal exams during the first trimester of pregnancy, it was her experience the doctor used only a speculum, and not their fingers.

“And they certainly didn’t rub lubricant on you in the manner (Bissonnette) did,” she said.

The woman said she could see Bissonnette’s face in her peripheral vision and “felt like he was looking at me for a positive response… I didn’t give that to him. I wasn’t looking directly at him. There was no way I was going to make eye contact.”

The woman said she left the appointment “never want(ing) to go back there again.”

“I tried to forget about it as much as I could,” until news reports came to her attention in November 2020 that Bissonnette had been charged with sexually assaulting six patients, the woman said.

Under cross-examination, the woman admitted she had no memory of what discussion she may have had with Bissonnette prior to her internal exam and what reasons Bissonnette may have had for conducting it.

Defence lawyer Lisa LaBossiere suggested the woman also had a Pap test that day, which would have required the use of a speculum and the application of lubricant. The woman said she had no memory of receiving a Pap test.

LaBossiere said records showed the woman saw Bissonnette a total of five times, not two times as she testified, the final time July 21, 2018, at Ste. Anne Hospital.

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In a statement to Ste. Anne police Nov. 27, 2020, the woman said if she ever had to go to Ste. Anne Hospital she would pray Bissonnette was not there and if he was she would “run the other way.”

“Was that what you were feeling at the time?” LaBossiere asked the woman.

“Yes,” the woman said. “If I were in a position to seek help elsewhere, I probably would have.”

The woman is the last of five patient witnesses to testify at the trial. On Tuesday, a medical expert is expected to testify about appropriate medical examination protocols.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.