Ontario Doctor With Contrarian Views on Pandemic Policy Permanently Loses Medical Licence

A doctor wears a stethoscope around his neck as he tends to patients in his office this file photo. The Canadian Press/Jeff Roberson

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has permanently suspended the medical licence of Dr. Patrick Brian Phillips after its discipline tribunal found that he was “incompetent” and undermined Canada’s public health response to COVID-19.

“We are dismayed by the deliberate steps you took to undermine the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the tribunal said in its decision dated June 6.

“As a physician, the information you communicate is trusted by many. Your communications to colleagues, patients, and your thousands of followers on social media regarding COVID-19 and public health response measures, were careless, often offensive and at times, possibly harmful.”

Phillips, who practised medicine in Englehart, was first barred from issuing exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines, masking requirements, and testing—as well as prescribing the antiparasitic medication ivermectin—in September 2021. The CPSO then temporarily suspended Phillips’s medical licence on May 3, 2022, for “holding a medical opinion that is contrary to the public health directives.”

On June 6, 2023, the tribunal found that Phillips “engaged in disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct, failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession, [and] failed to respond appropriately or within a reasonable time to a written inquiry from the College.”

The tribunal also accused Phillips of spreading “misleading, incorrect or inflammatory statements” around COVID-19; attempting to obstruct COVID-19 testing for a 10-month-old infant who had been exposed to the virus; making “inflammatory” statements about public health restrictions; publicly criticizing Canada’s reporting system for adverse vaccine reactions; promoting vaccine exemptions via a website without clinical rationale; and having “heightened public fear during a global public health crisis.”

Additionally, the tribunal said Phillips failed to comply with the college’s investigation and monitoring order it imposed; posted the college’s investigative materials on the internet; and disclosed online a private letter he received from an Associate Medical Officer of Health (AMOH), which opened the AMOH to abusive comments from those who shared Phillips’s views.

In addition to being reprimanded by the panel and having his licence taken away, Phillips was also ordered to pay the college $6,000 in costs by July 6.

‘The Last Few Years Have Made Me Miserable’

Phillips told The Epoch Times that he began “speaking out” about the government’s response to COVID-19 in 2020, which led to his first investigation by the CPSO. Phillips was concerned that public health restrictions were causing more harm to Canadians than the virus itself.

Later on in the pandemic, when COVID vaccines were rolled out in 2021, a second investigation was opened after Phillips filled out too many Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) forms for suspected COVID-19 vaccine injuries. Phillips said he filled out a total of 10 AEFI forms, but only one—a woman experiencing a light rash post-vaccination—was accepted.

Phillips said that while working at a hospital in Kirkland Lake, he recommended against the 10-month child receiving a nasal swab for COVID-19 because it involved potential risks to the child, such as brain bleeding. “There was no clear benefit, which is why I recommended that. Looking back, [the local public health officer] saw that as me trying to interfere with their clinic.”

Phillips said that in order to challenge the CPSO’s ruling, which he would have been “guaranteed to lose,” he would have needed to pay $10,000 per day for a trial. He decided not to challenge the ruling, because the “last few years have made me miserable.”

Additionally, Phillips said he likely would have eventually come into conflict with the CPSO over the prescribing of puberty blockers for children looking to gender transition, as well as his opposition to medical assistance in dying for people whose only underlying medical condition is a mental illness.

Phillips said that while he is not sure what his next move will be, he knows of many doctors who are moving into alternative health fields.

“I’m in talks with other others who are in similar situations to me, and we’re just seeing how we can kind of contribute to helping a lot of people who are suffering in the world right now.”