REPORTS FROM COUNCIL
Independent Legal Advice Program
The College will indefinitely be extending
a pilot project to provide independent legal
advice (ILA) to complainants/witnesses
involved in discipline hearings in which the
allegations relate to sexual misconduct.
To date, seven witnesses have taken ad-
vantage of the ILA program, which offers a
maximum of three hours of legal advice. The
College had paid $6,679 for the program.
Participants stated that the ILA program
was “extremely helpful” for gaining an under-
standing of what to expect in terms of how
legal proceedings work.
Non-binary Gender Option
A non-binary gender field will be added to the
College’s public register. This will allow the
College to keep in step with a societal trend.
College Policies to be Revamped
We are redesigning College policies to be more
clear and concise with a focus on enhancing
their use and readability for physicians. The
aim is to transition existing policies to the new
approach by the end of 2019.
The new approach consists of the following:
• A move to a numbered/bulleted list format
instead of the current long-form narrative
approach;
• Clear articulation of required expectations
and those that are advisable;
• A clear statement of the purpose of the policy
and definition of key terms (i.e., ‘must’ and
‘advised’).
Using the new formatting to convey ex-
pectations could see policies be significantly
reduced in length.
The College will also critically evaluate the
use of those advised expectations on a go-for-
ward basis. In particular, we will aim to limit
their use where possible or to relocate them in
a companion document. In fact, it is anticipat-
ed that companion documents will continue to
be produced where necessary to: provide advice
regarding discharging specific expectations,
capture rationale/context where it is needed,
and outline best practices or recommendations
for conduct where appropriate to do so outside
of the policy itself.
Council also voted to rescind two policies,
with the rationale that they state expectations
already established in law, other College poli-
cies, or clinical standards.
The two policies are:
1. A
nabolic Steroids, Substances and
Methods Prohibited in Sport
2. Fetal Ultrasound for Non-Medical
Reasons
ISSUE 4, 2018 DIALOGUE
17