BCSC Considers Section 35 Interim Suspension

In Scott v. College of Massage Therapists of B.C. January 7, 2015, the BCSC added to the growing list of important cases considering the standard of evidence required to support  action pursuant to section 35 of the Health Professions Act.  In this case, the inquiry committee imposed  severe restrictions on a massage therapists ability to practice.  In particular he could not treat female patients without a chaperone and had to post notice of his conditions in all the treatment rooms. In this case, a female patient reported that the massage therapist had masturbated while he was massaging her back and that he put his penis on her wrist twice during  treatment.  The patient did not see these events because she was lying face down on the treatment table.  Instead she inferred them based upon sounds she heard and conjecture.  The Court held that the Committee did not apply the correct standard when it imposed the conditions.  It required evidence of a strong prima facie case and that the evidence in this case did not meet that test.  The Court said that reliance upon an unsubstantiated statement based upon what the complainant thought she heard and felt, rather than what she saw, was insufficient to establish that the offence had occurred.  She found that the Inquiry Committee did not assess the plausibility of the complainant's account of what had happened, especially in light of the fact that the massage therapist worked in a clinic with other therapists including his wife, and did not have a history of prior complaints or a criminal record.