discipline summaries
Dr. Walid Abawi
Practice Location: Toronto/Bowmanville
Practice Area: General Surgery
Hearing Information: Contested Hearing, Joint
Submission on Penalty
On September 12, 2013, the Discipline Committee
found that Dr. Abawi committed an act of professional misconduct, in that he engaged in an act or omission relevant to the practice of medicine that, having
regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be
regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or
unprofessional.
The Committee found that while working at a hospital, Dr. Abawi led a nurse (Ms A) into a bathroom,
made unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances
and remarks, trying to hug her and kiss her twice and
then resting his body against the closed bathroom door.
When the nurse stated she was leaving, Dr. Abawi did
not stand in her way. The Committee found that in the
context of the encounter, Dr. Abawi briefly confined the
nurse without her consent, by his unwanted advances,
his physical blocking of the door and the resulting psychological intimidation.
Reasons for Findings
The complainant, Ms A, a Registered Nurse at Hospital
X, alleged that Dr. Abawi, a General Surgeon at the
same hospital, made unwanted and inappropriate sexual
advances to her on a Saturday in 2006. Ms A claims
that Dr. Abawi guided her into a washroom after she
assisted him in transferring a patient to the Operating
Room (OR). Ms A alleged Dr. Abawi attempted to hug
her and kiss her on the lips without her consent, and
asked her if she was interested in having an affair. Ms
A claimed that Dr. Abawi stood in front of the door
blocking her exit. Dr. Abawi denied hugging and kissing Ms A and testified that he invited Ms A into the
bathroom and she agreed to join him. Dr. Abawi said
he asked Ms A if she was interested in having an affair
as he claimed she had been flirtatious with him in the
preceding months or years. Ms A had been away on maternity leave for the preceding 13 months, and returned
to work for a handful of shifts approximately four or
five weeks before the incident.
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The Committee found Ms A credible because her
version of what happened in the bathroom was clear,
consistent and unshaken on cross examination. The
Committee found any inconsistencies to be of a minor
nature or explainable. Furthermore, the scenario that
was painted by counsel for Dr. Abawi was implausible.
Ms A’s emotional state in the immediate period after the
encounter as well as two days later was commensurate
with the seriousness of it and augmented her version of
what happened. Ms A’s demeanour during her testimony added to her believability.
Dr. Abawi wrote a letter to the new Chief of Staff in
April 2008 in which he described progressive flirtatious
behaviour by Ms A. When Dr. Abawi discovered that
Ms A was away from work during the time he alleged
this behaviour, he testified about not being able to
remember. He had however been quite specific in his
2008 letter and when he spoke to Ms E (an investigator for the hospital) prior to learning of Ms A’s absence.
The Committee concluded that Ms A did not engage
in any flirtatious or sexually explicit behaviour at any
time. Dr. Abawi’s vagueness and inconsistencies about
the timeline and about the most explicit sexual acts that
he said she had engaged in, “unlike anything he had
seen before in the workplace,” led the Committee to
find that he was not believable or telling the truth. He
admitted that the premise of the letter of 2008, “I was
not harassing her, she was harassing me,” was a lie.
In summary, Dr. Abawi was inconsistent about the
exact nature of Ms A’s flirtatiousness, the timeline
involved, and his intentions in talking to Ms A. The
Committee concluded that Dr. Abawi was careless with
the truth. In coming to this conclusion, the Committee
found that Dr. Abawi was not credible.
Reasons for Penalty
The Committee considered the aggravating and mitigating factors. Dr. Abawi’s actions were highly inappropriate, intimidating, and took place in a hospital setting.
Ms A’s testimony summed the incident well: “Never in
a million years would I ever have thought that I would
be pulled into a bathroom and sexually assaulted at
my own place of employment by somebody who I’m
supposed to trust.” Ms A testified how shocked and
scared she was. In considering the penalty proposed, the
Committee considered several issues, including those
elucidated above by Ms A, regarding the context of Dr.
Dialogue Issue 1, 2015
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2015-03-19 11:18 AM