Ethical faults: Dr. Lacroix “went too far”

The Disciplinary Board of the College of Physicians declared the owner of Lacroix Medical Clinics, Dr.^r Marc Lacroix, guilty of two ethical faults, believing that he had gone “too far” by criticizing the WHO and public health in Quebec, thus damaging the reputation of the medical profession.

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The owner and founder of private Lacroix medical clinics, Dr.^r Marc Lacroix, has been facing an ethics complaint since the summer of 2020 for a series of interviews given to former CHOI Radio X host Jeff Fillion as well as for multiple Facebook posts against health measures. It was a private complainant, Olivier Bolduc, who will be a candidate for Québec solidaire in Jean-Talon in the next election, who filed this complaint.

After lengthy hearings, the D^r Lacroix was found guilty of ethical misconduct on two of the seven counts of the complaint. One of the three members of the Disciplinary Board, Dr.^r Petru-Lucian Comanita, however displayed his dissent and would have acquitted the D^r Lacroix, finding that the respondent had exercised his right to freedom of expression.

However, this is not the opinion of the two other members of the council, who judge severely the remarks made by Dr.^r Lacroix in an interview with CHOI on May 8, 2020. The D^r Lacroix had notably said “stop listening to the WHO”, adding: “We see the D^r Arruda with his beautiful WHO pin… I think that the WHO, from the start, was not credible in this crisis, hid information from the whole world.

This “wholehearted attack on the WHO” is not worthy of the behavior of a doctor, slices the advice, considering that the D^r Lacroix “went too far”. “We quickly understand that the D^r Lacroix is ​​there to challenge the measures of the Public Health Department and make a good show with the host”, is it written.

The council goes on to say that it could not act as if it was having a discussion “between friends” with the host who was also its advertising spokesperson. “The D^r Lacroix was more concerned with adopting a position that would make him popular […] than to be concerned about the consequences of COVID-19”, it is written.

The D^r Lacroix also failed in his ethical obligations by making multiple publications on his Facebook page, writing in particular “buffoon” above a photo of Dr.^r Horacio Arruda, “pure madness” or “the mask does not protect”.

The Council lists some fifty publications which, by tone and frequency, “lack elegance, class and dignity”. The D^r Lacroix was not exempt from his ethical obligations, even if he published on a personal Facebook page.

The Council recalls throughout its decision that the D^r Lacroix had the right to express his opinion, but that he should have been more careful and exercised more restraint, especially since he was not an expert in the field of public health. His remarks therefore lacked professionalism and seriousness, and reached a “degree of seriousness such” that they constitute an ethical fault, concludes the president, Ms.^e Marie-Josee Corriveau.

The D^r Lacroix will have to appear at a hearing on sanction in order to know the disciplinary penalty which will be imposed on him for the two ethical faults of which he was found guilty.