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four-year suspension for montreal gynecologist who made sexual remark
dr. allan climan's "conduct casts a shadow on the entire profession."
dec 12 2023
2 minute read
gynecologist and obstetrician allan b. climan had his licence revoked in july.
photo: montreal gazette files
allan climan, a montreal gynecologist who said “thank you for the good time” to a patient immediately after performing a vaginal exam, has been suspended for four years and fined $7,500.
the woman was about to give birth at the jewish general hospital in april 2022.
“dr. climan’s conduct casts a shadow on the entire profession,” the collège des médecins du québec disciplinary committee said in a dec. 8 ruling.
“under the circumstances, the committee has no other alternative but to impose a temporary suspension of a significant duration.”
the council in january found climan guilty of making an inappropriate sexual remark (his second such offence), of failing to abide by an order to have a woman present while examining patients, and of not updating the patient’s file.
the penalty falls short of the seven-year suspension and $12,500 fine sought by the collège des médecins du québec’s investigator.
“when you treat the woman as a spectacle and you say ‘thank you for the good time’ when her vagina is exposed, what a lack of respect for the patient,” leslie azer, a lawyer representing the investigator, told a september hearing about the penalty climan should face.
she described climan as an unrepentant repeat offender “who presents no possibility of rehabilitation, period.”
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at the time, climan’s lawyer, christine kark, argued her client should be suspended for one year and be fined $5,000.
kark said the suspension suggested by the investigator’s lawyer was excessive. “dr. climan is not a sexual predator,” kark said. she noted climan was in his mid-70s. she said a suspension of seven years would effectively be a permanent ban because he would be in his 80s upon reinstatement.
climan has said the comment in question wasn’t sexual. he told the disciplinary committee he uttered the words after he realized the patient had “the biggest pelvis i have ever seen.” that appeared to show the woman was not going to have a problem delivering her baby, he said.
as for examining the patient without a chaperone, climan said he went to her room after noting an abnormal contraction on a monitor. he said he feared complications because of the location of the baby’s head in his previous examination.
in its january decision, the disciplinary council said climan’s explanation was “absolutely not believable, even implausible.”
the college provisionally revoked climan’s license at the end of july 2022.
that means his four-year suspension will end in july 2026, 31 months from now.
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from 1989 to 2020, climan — who has been a doctor since 1981 — was the subject of 11 disciplinary investigations, according to the disciplinary council. five of them concerned “abusive remarks of a sexual nature.”
in 2019, climan was fined $2,500 and stripped of his licence for two years for making “vulgar and inappropriate” sexual remarks. he was accused of telling a patient: “you have a great little body, i can’t wait to examine you and i’m sure you have a beautiful vagina.”
when he returned to work, he was under orders to have a female chaperone present when examining patients.
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