The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal has found Dr. Mark Trozzi engaged in professional misconduct, a decision his lawyer says is a blow to free expression.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) argued to the tribunal that Dr. Trozzi’s statements critical of COVID-19 health measures amount to “misinformation.” CPSO argued it has the legal right to place certain limits on free expression in order to limit misinformation and protect the integrity of the profession and the public good.
The tribunal rejected Dr. Trozzi’s claim that his free expression was being improperly limited, and that such limits would chill other doctors from reasonable scientific debate.
“The charter does not prohibit offensive expression for one fundamental reason: It isn’t possible to separate speech that is intended only to offend from speech that offends because it strikes at the truth,” Mr. Alexander said.
The tribunal’s decision concedes that “there can be reasonable differences of opinion, even on scientific questions.”
“However, this case is about a physician denying well-established facts in a deliberately inflammatory manner to undermine public health measures during a pandemic,” it said.
It listed instances of Dr. Trozzi saying publicly that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous, that effective alternative treatments for COVID-19 have been deliberately suppressed, and that the pandemic was a hoax.
Mr. Alexander said in a press release following the decision that the tribunal failed to acknowledge his cross-examination of CPSO’s expert witness on COVID science, Dr. Andrew Gardam.
During this cross-examination, Mr. Alexander said, he established that Dr. Gardam had not responded to Dr. Trozzi’s 41-page report “in which he rebutted Dr. Gardam’s 8-page expert report with 29 scientific citations.”
“In closing submissions, we argued that Dr. Trozzi was unrefuted on COVID science,” Mr. Alexander said. “Yet, the Tribunal made no mention of this fact.”
The tribunal also found Dr. Trozzi incompetent for the manner in which he issued COVID-19 vaccine exemptions. CPSO expert witness Dr. Aaron Orkin reviewed 27 vaccine exemptions issued by Dr. Trozzi.
Among Dr. Orkin’s criticisms were that Dr. Trozzi failed to use established criteria for issuing the exemptions and he did not examine or document well enough how he determined that the risk outweighed the benefit to the patient.
Mr. Alexander said in the release that Dr. Trozzi’s exemptions supported “a patient’s right to refuse coerced medical treatment under Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act and section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Dr. Orkin criticized Dr. Trozzi for applying “a flawed approach to informed consent.” The tribunal agreed with that assessment.
The tribunal also found Dr. Trozzi guilty of misconduct for not initially cooperating with an investigation into his conduct.
Mr. Alexander argued the investigation itself was invalid, because Dr. Trozzi was suspected of violating “mere guidelines” on public health measures rather than formal rules of conduct. The tribunal found that Dr. Trozzi had a duty to cooperate either way.
Mr. Alexander said his client will appeal the decision to the Divisional Court.
