Doctor accused of sex assault testifies exams were consistent with training

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This article was published 18/05/2023 (842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba doctor on trial accused of sexually assaulting five patients testified Thursday his examinations were all consistent with his medical training.

Arcel Bissonnette provided a detailed review of his examination practices, but admitted he did not always have an independent recollection of the specific examinations at issue in the trial.

“All I can tell you is my usual practices, my usual procedures, and I can’t think of any reason why I would deviate from that,” Bissonnette told court, referring to the pelvic examination of one alleged victim.

Five women have testified Bissonnette performed medical examinations they say amounted to sexual assaults. Three of the women say they saw or may have seen Bissonnette with an erection during or following the examinations.

The alleged assaults occurred between 2001 and 2015 during medical examinations at the Seine Medical Centre and Ste. Anne Hospital.

Bissonnette told the court he started his career as a family doctor at the Seine Medical Centre in 1990. He said he saw approximately 1,500 patients, 40 per cent of them women.

Several of Bissonnette’s alleged victims testified he performed lengthy pelvic exams, during which he repeatedly inserted and withdrew his fingers from their vagina.

Bissonnette said he did not withdraw and reinsert his fingers, but would have “repositioned” them once, as he examined either side of the patient’s vagina for abnormalities. The exams would last approximately one minute, he said.

One alleged victim testified Bissonnette placed fingers in both her vagina and rectum at the same time, with no advance warning or instruction.

Bissonnette testified pelvirectal exams can detect abnormalities such as tumours or cysts that may go undiscovered by individual exams of the vagina and rectum.

All of the alleged victims testified Bissonnette provided little or no verbal instructions as to what he was doing or why. Earlier in the trial, a medical expert testified a patient’s verbal consent is necessary before proceeding with a pelvic exam, pelvirectal exam, rectal exam and other invasive procedures.

Bissonnette said he advised the patients what he was doing before each step of the examination. Asked by defence lawyer Josh Weinstein whether the patients said anything suggesting they didn’t understand or consent, Bissonnette said no.

One woman who saw Bissonnette for a referral for the treatment of hemorrhoids testified he positioned her “on all fours” and told her he wanted to examine her rectum. Then, without telling her what he was going to do, he inserted a vaginal speculum in her anus and opened it, she alleged.

Bissonnette testified the instrument wasn’t a speculum but an anoscope, an instrument used for examination of the anal canal. Bissonnette said an anoscopy can help rule out anal or rectal cancer.

“Did you communicate what you were doing?” Weinstein asked Bissonnette.

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“What I usually tell patients is that I am going to insert a small scope into your rectum to rule out other causes of your symptoms,” he said. The woman indicated she “understood the procedure and what I wanted to do.”

Bissonnette denied allegations he removed paper sheets or draping from the patients, exposing them unnecessarily during the examinations.

Accusations he had an erection following a number of the examinations were not true, Bissonnette said. Earlier in his testimony, Bissonnette said he would often carry a reflex hammer or tuning fork in his pocket.

Bissonnette will return to the witness stand Friday for cross examination by the Crown.

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.