An Ontario family physician says he is “proud” of taking a stand against “medical tyranny” after the province’s medical regulator barred him from issuing medical exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and mask requirements.
The regulator said his posts on various digital platforms were allegedly “making misleading, incorrect or inflammatory statements about vaccinations, treatments and public health measures for COVID-19.”
“Providing patients and the public access to treatments for COVID-19 and vaccine injuries and protecting them from medical coercion is not something I will regret,” he wrote.
“For that reason it requires informed consent free from any coercion or reprimand if the test is declined,” Phillips wrote, while noting that “forced medical procedures are assault under the Criminal Code of Canada.”
The CPSO has referred the allegations against Phillips to its disciplinary tribunal.
In the hearing notice, the CPSO alleges that, between Aug. 2020 and Sept. 2021, Phillips “committed an act of professional misconduct” by making posts on social media about the COVID-19 pandemic and refusing to co-operate with its investigations.
The college said Phillips is the first doctor to be referred to its disciplinary tribunal and face interim measures over allegations of COVID-19 misinformation although a date for a hearing has not yet been set.
Phillips’s primary location of practice is the Englehart and District Hospital in Englehart, Ont.
Gill was accused of a “lack of professionalism and failure to exercise caution in her posts on social media, which is irresponsible behaviour for a member of the profession and presents a possible risk to public health.”
That decision is being appealed to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, an independent adjudicative agency. According to the CPSO, a request for judicial review has also been filed with the Divisional Court.
