Sordid End to a Professional Career

"He first denied to his lawyer that he had made the inappropriate ... valentine sent to [the complainant's mother] but then subsequently admitted this to be an example of the sexualized humour he used. His mortification at his own behaviour was self-serving and beyond belief. Dr. Gale's cavalier attitude towards boundary issues with a patient is absolutely astounding."
"[He] woke her up saying her name, rubbed her hair and kissed her on the lips and forehead and told her he loved her and had been falling in love for months, was unhappy with his wife, wanted to leave her and wanted to be with Ms. X."
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario tribunal ruling

It's as old as the pyramids, and even then, older still. Men of influence, of perceived power, of wealth or social standing, and perhaps all of the above, portraying themselves as honourable and decent while taking advantage of a woman's dependent status. Promising the world, claiming undying love and devotion; a married man insisting there is no longer any love between himself and his spouse, that his yearning is for the woman he is busy courting.

And then, when the tryst has had its day and has become inconvenient, the man suddenly becomes less than enamoured of the woman he has taken advantage of and who has herself become at that point entranced by the notion that she is loved and her future is assured. In the case of eye surgeon Jeffrey Gale, who took advantage of a patient to snare her into a love affair whose pursuit entertained him until he became tired of it, chickens have roosted.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario have a zero-tolerance policy regarding any sexual contact between doctor and patient -- to represent abuse of position, status, professionalism. The power differential between doctor and patient morally mitigates against any such conduct. A discipline committee was struck to hear evidence brought against Dr. Gale, and it found in favour of the woman who brought her complaint before them.

Despite his flat denials of wrong-doing, the committee found itself convinced that a patient of the doctor's whom he had brought into his home after treating her professionally and continuing to treat her eye condition, to act as a nanny for his children. Making her presence in the house more available to his pursuit of her as a lover.

There was an issue discussed over his having made a crudely sexual Valentine card which he presented to the nanny's mother in which he addressed her as a "GILF", translated as a "Grandmother I'd Like to F---". The nanny was a young woman of 30, with serious eye problems related to her condition of diabetes out of which other organ complications had arisen, with a kidney transplant.

Although the panel sitting to hear the case initially began with a feeling of suspended credulity on hearing from both the complainant and the doctor, eventually a slight majority ruled against Dr. Gale, and a minority while suspicious of the nanny's entire story, found it believable and Dr. Gale to be evasive dishonest, and self-serving.

Darren Calabrese/National Post

The majority opinion held some skepticism of the nanny, but "on a balance of probabilities" believed her testimony and the evidence she provided. In the end, the doctor was found to be guilty of professional misconduct, and his medical licence is being revoked as he is now considered to be a sexual abuser.