Third lawsuit filed against former Ste. Anne MD

A former rural doctor convicted of sexually assaulting seven patients over nearly two decades has been slapped with a third lawsuit related to abuse claims.

A 33-year-old woman, who claims Arcel Bissonnette sexually assaulted her multiple times from 2006 to 2020, filed the statement of claim this week in Court of King’s Bench.

Bissonnette, who’s in his mid-60s, practised as a family physician for 30 years in Ste. Anne. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba cancelled his certification last year following his first set of convictions.

The 33-year-old says she was 15 when she began to see Bissonnette for full physical exams at the Ste. Anne clinic where he worked. She alleges he sexually assaulted and battered her during 10 medical appointments, for which she claims she is owed damages.

“(She) was physically, emotionally and mentally distraught and was afraid of Dr. Bissonnette,” reads the new court filing.

The lawsuit names Bissonnette and his numbered company; the clinic where he worked, Centre Medical Seine; and governing bodies Shared Health and Southern Health as defendants. None have responded with statements of defence.

The woman reported the alleged abuse to the police in 2020, after she saw media reports about charges laid against Bissonnette. He was charged with sexual assault against her in 2021. The charges were stayed as part of a plea deal last February.

The woman accuses the clinic and the health authority of insufficient effort in investigating and responding to reported sexual assaults. The authorities and clinic, she claims, breached their duties to her.

She claims the clinic and health authorities knew or ought to have known Bissonnette was “a danger to patients in his care,” given various complaints about sexual assault had been made to police, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, the clinic’s director and health authority officials.

The woman alleges Seine Medical Centre and Southern Health made no effort to establish a critical incident review committee following reports of misconduct.

Bissonnette, who is incarcerated in Stony Mountain prison, was convicted in 2023 of sexually assaulting five women at Centre Medical Seine and Ste. Anne Hospital between 2001 and 2017.

He also pleaded guilty before another judge in February last year to sexually assaulting two other women at the clinic between 2005 and 2011. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison last August.

At a 2022 trial that involved six alleged victims, other sex charges against Bissonnette were stayed after it was revealed Ste. Anne police had lost notebooks from the investigation.

The 33-year-old woman’s lawyer, Faron Trippier, is also handling two earlier lawsuits against Bissonnette that remain before the court.

The first was filed on behalf of five women in June 2023, during Bissonnette’s second criminal trial.

The second was filed in April on behalf of one of the women Bissonnette was convicted of assaulting.

He has denied wrongdoing and asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed in a statement of defence filed in response to the April lawsuit.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca