‘It takes years to build a reputation, but only one egregious act to destroy a career’
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A Toronto physician’s licence to practise medicine has been revoked for asking for and receiving oral sex from his patient 15 years ago.
The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal also ordered Dr. Charlie Bobby Guiang to appear in front of it to be reprimanded for sexually abusing the man, identified only as Patient A in a recent decision.
“He told us that what occurred had ‘shattered’ his trust in the patient-physician relationship: ‘what should have been a safe space – a doctor’s office – became a prison of fear and shame,’” the five-person discipline panel said.
It heard “the patient carried this trauma, struggled with his mental health, and was never the same again, in his personal or work relationships,” said the decision, dated Jan. 31.
“The patient continued to see Dr. Guiang as a family physician for another decade before asking him why he had done this. The doctor-patient relationship ended at that appointment.”
Guiang “did not contest the college’s allegation of sexual abuse, which is a form of professional misconduct,” said the decision.
But in July of 2024, the doctor did try to get a recording the patient “secretly made” during an appointment in 2021 deemed inadmissible. He was only partially successful in that effort.
In that July 29, 2024, decision, the discipline tribunal said the patient discussed the incident with two psychiatrists around the time he complained to the college in mid-2021.
“In a statement to the police, Patient A said that he had frequent psychiatric care and that through the care he received, he ‘gained the strength and courage to face (his) demons head on’ and ‘finally confront Dr. Guiang,’” according to the decision from that hearing last summer.
Guiang obtained his certificate of registration from the college authorizing independent practice in Ontario on June 28, 2002.
“Patient A was his patient between February 2010 and July 2021,” said the Jan. 31 decision revoking Guiang’s licence to practise.
“In or around 2010 or 2011, Patient A came to an appointment for a routine check-up. By then, Dr. Guiang had seen him a few times as a patient.”
After physically examining the patient, both doctor and patient sat down in chairs to discuss the results.
“While they were both seated, Dr. Guiang asked Patient A to perform oral sex on Dr. Guiang. Patient A felt he had to comply. The registrant unfastened and pulled down his pants, and Patient A performed oral sex on Dr. Guiang. In the end, Dr. Guiang ejaculated in Patient A’s mouth.”
The patient continued seeing Dr. Guiang “as a family physician, and they did not discuss the sexual abuse, until July 7, 2021.”
At an appointment that day, “Patient A asked the registrant about his motives for the sexual abuse. That was his last medical appointment with Dr. Guiang before Patient A terminated the physician-patient relationship.”
The doctor’s “oral to genital contact with the patient constitutes sexual abuse,” said the discipline panel.
One of the purposes of the Health Professions Procedural Code is “to encourage the reporting of such abuse, to provide funding for therapy and counselling in connection with allegations of sexual abuse by members and, ultimately, to eradicate the sexual abuse of patients by members,” said the recent decision.
That same code “requires the panel to revoke Dr. Guiang’s certificate of registration … and reprimand him,” it said.
“The parties’ joint submission was that we should revoke Dr. Guiang’s certificate of registration, effective immediately, reprimand the registrant, and order him to pay the college the maximum amount of $17,940 for reimbursement of funding provided for Patient A’s therapy and counselling, together with the tariff amount of $6,000 for costs.”
On top of that, “the parties informed us that Dr. Guiang had undertaken not to apply or reapply for registration as a physician in Ontario or in any other jurisdiction in the future.”
Patient A “gave the panel a detailed and eloquent statement of the longstanding and ongoing harm that Dr. Guiang inflicted on him,” said the decision.
“For almost 15 years, while Patient A ‘carried this trauma in silence,’ the abuse has had a catastrophic effect on every aspect of his life: his marriage, personal relationships with his parents and extended family, his employment, his mental health and his self-worth. Dr. Guiang’s conduct ‘left a trail of devastation that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.’”
One of Guiang’s lawyers told the discipline panel the doctor “had devoted his family medicine practice to assist and teach a marginalized and underserved LGBTQ community. His decision not to contest the sexual abuse allegation had saved time, expense and stress for all concerned, and had spared Patient A the obligation to testify.”
But “as the panel noted in delivering its reprimand, the registrant’s misconduct crossed boundaries and displayed a profound lack of professional integrity,” said the recent decision.
“It takes years to build a reputation, but only one egregious act to destroy a career and inflict incalculable harm on a vulnerable patient.”
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