CPSO - Doctor Details Print

Summary

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Former Name: No Former Name

Gender: Male

Languages Spoken: English

Education: University of Toronto, 1989

Practice Information

Primary Location of Practice

Practice Address Not Available

Medical Records Location

Instructions/Address:

All medical records info is above
Collins Bay Prison, 1455 Bath Road, Kingston, Ontario K7L 4V9
Regional Treatment Centre - Millhaven Prison, Loyalist, Ontario K0H 1G0
Regional Treatment - Bath Prison, Bath, ON, Loyalist, Ontario K0H 1G0
Weeneebayko General Hospital, 19 Hospital Drive, Moose Factory, ON P0L 1W0

Date Received: 12 Apr 2022

Hospital Privileges

No Privileges reported.

Hospital Notices

Source: Hospital
Active Date: April 12, 2017
Expiry Date:
Summary:
On April 12, 2017, Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) notified the College, pursuant to section 33(a) of the Public Hospitals Act and section 85.5(1) of the Health Professions Procedural Code, that Dr. Waddell’s application for re-appointment for the 2015/2016 credentialing year was denied by WAHA’s Board of Directors.

Specialties

Specialty	Issued On	Type
No Speciality Reported

Registration History

Action	Issue Date
First certificate of registration issued: Postgraduate Education Certificate	Effective: 12 Jun 1989
Expired: Terms and conditions of certificate of registration	Expiry: 18 Jun 1990
Subsequent certificate of registration Issued: Independent Practice Certificate	Effective: 18 Jun 1990
Transfer of class of certificate to: Restricted certificate	Effective: 27 Jan 2020
Terms and conditions imposed on certificate by Registration Committee	Effective: 27 Jan 2020
Suspension of registration imposed: Discipline Committee	Effective: 28 Jan 2020
Suspension of registration removed	Effective: 28 Apr 2020
Terms and conditions amended by Registration Committee	Effective: 28 Mar 2021
Expired: Resigned from membership.	Expiry: 12 Apr 2022

Previous Hearings

Committee: Discipline
Decision Date: 27 Jan 2020
Summary:

On January 27, 2020, on the basis of an agreed statement of facts, the Discipline Committee (the “Committee”) of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario found that Dr. John Maitland Waddell (“Dr. Waddell”) committed an act of professional
misconduct in that: he engaged in an act or omission relevant to the practise of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional; and engaged in conduct unbecoming a physician. The Committee also set out its penalty and costs order with written reasons to follow.

PART I -FACTS

A. Background

Dr. Waddell received his certificate of registration authorizing independent practice from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (the “College”) on June 18,1990.

From 2005 until early March 2015, Dr. Waddell worked in the Weeneebayko region providing family medicine services, under contract with various governing health authorities, and holding Active Staff privileges at Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (“WAHA”) (or its predecessor).

WAHA provides health services in the Weeneebayko region along the James Bay and Hudson Bay coastal regions in northern Ontario in six communities: Moose Factory, Fort Albany, Attawapiskat, Moosonee, Kashechewan and Peawanuck. WAHA provides health care to the six communities it services through different types of facilities in each community. The Fort Albany and Attawapiskat Hospitals have some inpatient beds. Weeneebayko General Hospital (“WGH”) is the largest health facility and provides the widest scope of health care in addition to inpatient services including 24-hour emergency services, family medicine, a regional mental health program, and various specialty clinics.

B. Dr. Waddell’s Dispute at WAHA

In an application signed January 31, 2015, Dr. Waddell applied to the WAHA for an appointment to the Hospital’s Medical Staff, Department of Family Medicine in the category of locum tenens for the 2015-2016 credentialing year. At the time of his application, he held Active Staff privileges at WAHA, and until March 2015 was providing Coastal Consultation services (a telecommute position) along the James Bay coast.

At its meeting September 25, 2015, the Medical Advisory Committee (the “MAC”) recommended to the WAHA Board of Directors (the “WAHA Board”) that Dr. Waddell not be re-appointed to Medical Staff.

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Dr. Waddell requested a hearing before the WAHA Board to consider the MAC recommendation. The hearing took place over four days in November and December 2016. In its decision dated March 7, 2017, the WAHA Board adopted the MAC’s recommendation declining reappointment.

Dr. Waddell appealed the WAHA Board’s decision to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (“HPARB”). The hearing took place over three weeks in November 2017 and January and February 2018. In its decision released May 8, 2018, HPARB confirmed the decision of the WAHA Board.

On December 17, 2019, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice- Divisional Court dismissed Dr. Waddell’s appeal of the HPARB decision. A copy of the endorsement is attached.

Dr. Waddell has not been on site at WAHA or provided direct on-site physician services to WAHA since August 28, 2014. Dr. Waddell has not provided any physician services, including coastal call consultation services, to WAHA since March 2015.

C. Disgraceful, Dishonourable or Unprofessional Conduct re: Email Campaign

While Dr. Waddell’s privileging dispute was ongoing, Dr. Waddell sent emails to a wide audience which were unprofessional and offensive, and which Dr. Waddell knew or ought to have known could promote a negative reaction against physician leadership within WAHA. This led to a further erosion of trust between Dr. Waddell and WAHA leadership.

For example, after the WAHA Board hearing was completed on December 14, 2016, Dr.Waddell used his hospital email to send two emails: one dated December 15, 2016 to all WAHA physicians and staff; the second dated December 15, 2016 to WAHA physicians.

In these emails, Dr. Waddell characterized the MAC meeting of September 25, 2015 as the “sort of justice seen in a Gestapo firing squad, a Wild West lynching, or the burning of the witches on the stake.”Dr. Waddell alleged that the Hospital had tried to “illegally fire him” and that he had been denied due process. He accused Dr. Green (Chief of Staff) of engaging in a reprisal against him and accused Dr. Green, Dr. Martens (Director of Family Medicine) and Mr.Schmidt (Chief Executive Officer) of breaching his confidentiality. He alleged that the three men had improperly used the “might” of WAHA to irreparably destroy his reputation and end his career.

Dr. Waddell’s communications were contrary to the Hospital’s email policy. In response,WAHA terminated Dr. Waddell’s access to hospital email service on December 16, 2016.

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Dr. Waddell continued to send unprofessional and offensive emails which he knew or ought to have known could be received as threatening and harassing to the WAHA leadership, and specifically Dr. Green, Dr. Martens and Mr. Schmidt who testified on
behalf of WAHA at the WAHA Board hearing. For example:

-In an email dated May 9, 2017, entitled “Weather Watch” to Drs. Green, Martens and Mr. Schmidt, Dr. Waddell wrote:

You may have won a couple of battles, but you shall not win the war. Your nefarious deeds committed through collusive lies shall bring you all down from the high places you think you all sit.

There is a hurricane developing throughout the territory headed straight towards the hospital. With that in mind, if any person or party at WAHA or WAHA’s agents reveals ANY of my personal health information to any person or party without my written consent I shall hold the 3 of you responsible.

-In response to a letter sent by Ms. Deborah Hill (Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Patient Care, and Chief Nursing Executive) to all WAHA Employees and Staff, Dr. Waddell made the following unprofessional comments to Ms. Hill, stating:

My advice to you Ms. Hill is to be careful where you stand for 2 reasons, my unfounded and inflammatory comments are extensively documented and soon to become very public knowledge and you are surrounded by liars.

-In response to an email dated May 12, 2017, written by Dr. Green and circulated to all WAHA employees, Dr. Waddell replied in email dated May 12, 2017 to Dr.Green, stating:

You are a liar. You did that to yourself. And the hate is yours, not mine. The misdeeds are on you not me. It’s time for you to go.

In a subsequent email dated July 16, 2017 to Dr. Green, Dr. Waddell stated:

… I am officially informing you, the Chief of Staff that I will be exercising freedom of opinion and expression as well as freedom of association. This will be in the form of Facebook messaging to my friends.

In an email dated November 17, 2017 to Dr. Green, and copied to others in WAHA leadership, Dr. Waddell wrote:

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It is very sad what you have done. Wielding the power, authority and resources of a public hospital is despicable. Enlisting so many to achieve your personal revenge is wicked. I hope to find room in my heart to forgive you sometime, maybe on the same day you extend to me one ounce of human decency.

D. Disgraceful, Dishonourable or Unprofessional Conduct re: Facebook Campaign

Commencing in or around May 2017, Dr. Waddell authored a series of Facebook posts in which he made unprofessional and far-reaching allegations against WAHA, senior management personnel and some of its Medical Staff which were widely accessible to the public. Facebook in the James Bay Region is an important tool for communication among residents.

On or about May 6, 2017, Dr. Waddell wrote:

Would anyone who either lives/lived or works/worked in the Mushkegowuk Territory be at all interested in how the health system run by the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority kills, maims and endangers the patients of the region?

I have an incredible list of true stories that I’d love to tell over the next year that many would find informative from the ten years I served in the region before the Chief of Staff, the CEO, the Chief of Family Medicine and their hired hitmen ran me out of town.

Dr. Waddell provided a Facebook update between May 9 and 7, 2017 stating:

I am eventually going to compile the Facebook stories into some form of a publication. It will be called ‘The Red Genocide”, a sad, yet appropriate name I feel….

Throughout 2017, Dr. Waddell continued to make unprofessional and offensive Facebook posts, specifically identifying members of WAHA leadership, and WAHA’s legal counsel, in a manner that he knew or ought to have known could be received as inflammatory and threatening:

-After receiving communication from WAHA counsel, Dr. Waddell wrote that the hospital was hiding behind an “outrageously expensive legal shield at the expense of the sick and wounded”. Specifically, on or about May 11, 2017, Dr. Waddell posted:

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[Counsel to WAHA] ... was hired by your hospital’s CEO, Chief of Staff, Chief of Family Medicine and their thugs to do 2 things, cover up for their wickedness and malfeasance, and permanently silence my voice…

It sickens me to know that the hospital Chiefs hide behind their obscene and dastardly deeds behind an outrageously expensive legal shield at the expense of the regions sick and wounded.

All I know is we live in a free country and have a constitutional right to express ourselves. So [Counsel to WAHA], with all due respect, stuff it up your meci hole [excrement hole], as this doc has got a lot to say.

He continued to post unprofessional comments about WAHA’s legal counsel and what he perceived as WAHA’s attempts to pay her to silence him.

In or around July 18, 2017, Dr. Waddell posted about members of WAHA Medical Staff, the Chairman of the Board and the CEO. Specifically, he asserted that Dr.Zahra Jaffer (President of the Medical Staff at WAHA) and Dr. Martens were committing “their own atrocities” to silence him. He posted in response to a comment from a member of the public on Facebook:

The corruption & incompetence is beyond belief... Wait until you see the chapters on Drs. Barkman & Ringrose, the chapter titled ‘The Loon with a Crooked Beak’ will make you vomit, I will also chronicle Green & Schmidt’s manipulation of not only WAHA Bylaws, polices and agreements… to serve their ends, but also of young doctors like Martens and Jaffer who they enticed into their twisted circle to commit their own atrocities against me to silence my voice to tell my patients’ stories.

In or around July 23, 2017, in a post entitled “Show Me the Money”, Dr. Waddell accused Mr. Schmidt and Dr. Green of redirecting hospital money to silence him. He wrote:

CEO Schmidt, Chief of Staff Green and other senior people at WAHA have re-directed hospital money towards Toronto Lawyers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and rising every day.

They have done this to silence my voice to tell your stories of how the WAHA health system fails the region’s patients. At first they forced me out in hopes that thousands of miles of distance muted my words. When that failed, there was a brutal and savage assault on my character with the purposeful intent to destroy my reputation and credibility, rendering the PATIENT STORIES that I tell unbelievable and unfounded.

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.. They’ve commanded huge amounts of money, the patients’ money to buy and .. make truth in the name of quality patient care. It is obscene, repulsive and hideous.

- On or about July 30 or 31, 2017, in a post entitled “White Witness to a Red Genocide: Chapter: Over the Hill”, Dr. Waddell accused WAHA of outrageous conduct. He stated:

This story shows how the physicians’ philosophy at WAHA can kill, maim and endanger the Mushkegowuk patients.

- In an August 2017 post entitled “A White Witness to a Red Genocide Chapter: Death by Phone”, Dr. Waddell wrote:

In ten years I saw phone medicine kill, maim and endanger hundreds of patients in the Territory…

There is NO doctor who would EVER have himself or their loved ones diagnosed over the phone. NONE. … Yet it is perfectly fine for the Mushkegowuk people. Red Genocide my friends, a Red Genocide. Either stand and fight for your lives now, or remain sitting and wait your turn for the doctor call that places your life, limb or function in peril.

- In or around September 2017, in a post entitled “White Witness to a Red Genocide, Chapter: A Loon with a Crooked Beak,” Dr. Waddell wrote in respect of Hospital Board Chair, Leo Loone:

There remains a rotting bird sitting on your health authority’s fouling the nest and neglecting its’ hatchlings. If this is acceptable to you say nothing, do nothing. If not, stand up and fight … Your quest for these answers will lead to other hideous
creatures that feast on such filth.”

In November 2017, in a post entitled “Killing a White Witness”, Dr. Waddell wrote:

It’s wrong. Fucking wrong.
..[t]he corruption within WAHA is deep like a canyon, wide like a mountain, endless like the sky. It is everywhere. Corruption is WAHA, a monster that will do anything to survive. It has no choice but to kill the White Witness.
But how? Through organized and sustained attacks with intent to inflict grievous injury… In the dealings with me, there has been no fair play. There has been no law and order. Nothing but savage and brutal attacks that they hold out as ‘due process’. Paid for out of your hospital’s bank account on the backs of the Territory’s spilled blood, broken bones, nooses about necks, misery, suffering & death.

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In its decision released May 8, 2018, HPARB found:
The Appeal Board finds that Dr. Waddell’s conduct in the above social media postings to clearly demonstrate his continued inability to conduct himself in a fashion that might demonstrate cooperation with the Board or WAHA’s leadership. His multiple misleading and serious allegations against WAHA, its employees and its staff based on incidents that took place many years ago, including incidents that would have occurred while Dr. Waddell was in a position of administration and leadership. The posts, while problematic for many reasons, are particularly concerning given the impression Dr. Waddell is conveying to the public that the incidents are current issues in the community despite the fact that these events occurred some years ago and are stated according to Dr. Waddell’s perspective and may not be accurate. Indeed, Dr. Waddell has not been onsite at WAHA or provided direct on-site physician services to WAHA’s patients since 2014. Dr. Waddell has not provided any physician services, such as Coastal Call consultation services, to WAHA since March 2015.

Dr. Waddell continued to author posts on Facebook in 2018 that were unprofessional:

- In or around May 31, 2018, after the release of the HPARB decision confirming the Board’s decision not to reappoint Dr. Waddell, in a post entitled “A White Witness to Red Genocide, Chapter: License to Kill the Red man”, Dr. Waddell wrote:

Read the HPARB and WAHA Decisions... You will see how the white man’ manipulation of the facts and their law permits the death and injury of you, your children, your grandchildren… Bottom line is any doctor who attempts to stop the corruption and incompetence that kills or maims any of you shall be ruled disruptive and unworthy….

…so many of those that I so deeply cared for shall needlessly die and suffer in all of the days that follow forever.

In a subsequent post, entitled “Meci Sandwich” (meaning “Excrement Sandwich”), Dr. Waddell wrote:

A day will come when the likes of Bernie Schmidt, Gordon Green, Kelly Reuben, Ben Martens, Caroline Lidstone-Jones, Zahra Jaffer, Robert Gagnon, Janice Soltys, and the rest of their twisted allies will have to answer to their actions as reflected in real facts, not their fiction. In doing so, their walls of deceit, denial, deflection & determent will fall down around them, leaving them exposed and naked to be judged for what they have done. There can be no better end then to watch them feast on the meci sandwiches that they made for others to eat.

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- In June 2018, in a post entitled “Lying L-Stone”, about WAHA’s Chief Quality Officer, Caroline Lidstone Jones, Dr. Waddell stated:

Lies of her knowledge of my allegations. Lies about writing the incident report. Lies about receiving the complaint. All to shore up the lies, nonsense and other poppycock of Shaking Man [Green] & Bull Schmidt.

E. Impact of Dr. Waddell’s Unprofessional Facebook Campaign

Members of WAHA leadership and physicians practising at WAHA at that time have indicated that Dr. Waddell’s Facebook posts and emails impacted the community and WAHA’s ability to provide medical services, creating an environment of mistrust and anger towards WAHA physicians and staff, with the resulting consequences: the resignation of physicians, difficulty recruiting new physicians, difficulties for physicians communicating with and effectively treating their patients and negative impact on staff morale.

F. Disgraceful, Dishonourable or Unprofessional Conduct re Dr. Waddell’s Disclosure of Patient Information

Some of Dr. Waddell’s public Facebook posts disclosed patient information that Dr.Waddell had no authority to disclose. The posts included descriptions of medical conditions, medical procedures outcomes, and particulars regarding patients. The details described were sufficient to permit the patients to identify themselves. One patient complained to the College about a series of posts, noting that she did not give Dr. Waddell consent to speak about her experience.

In Dr. Waddell’s response to the College, he offered his apology to the patient who complained.

G. Conduct Inconsistent College Policy

Dr. Waddell’s conduct described above is inconsistent with professional obligations including those as articulated in Policy Statement 43-16 Physician Behaviour in the Professional Environment, and in Social Media – Appropriate Use by Physicians which
set the following expectations, among other things:

- Physicians are expected to act in a respectful, courteous and civil manner towards their patients, colleagues and others involved in the provision of health care. Doing so fosters an atmosphere of trust, shared accountability and collaboration. Behaviour that is unprofessional and or disruptive undermines medical professionalism and the trust of the public;
- Physicians are expected to uphold the standards of medical professionalism, conduct themselves in a professional manner.

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Physicians are expected not to engage in disruptive behaviours because they undermine professionalism as well as a culture of safety;
- Exercise caution when posting information online that relates to an actual patient. Bear in mind that an unnamed patient may still be identified through a range of other information, such as their clinical condition or area of residence; and,
- Protect the reputation of the profession and the public trust by not posting content that could be viewed as unprofessional.

PART II - ADMISSION

Dr. Waddell admits the facts specified above, and admits that, based on these facts, he engaged in professional misconduct, in that:

(a) He engaged in an act or omission relevant to the practise of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional, under paragraph 1(1)33 of O. Reg. 856/93, made under the Medicine Act, 1991 (“O/Reg.856/93”); and
(b) He engaged in conduct unbecoming a physician.

DISPOSITION

The Committee accepted the parties’ joint submission on penalty and costs.

On January 27, 2020, the Discipline Committee ordered that:

- Dr. Waddell attend before the panel to be reprimanded.

- The Registrar suspend Dr. Waddell’s certificate of registration for three (3) months, commencing from January 28, 2020 at 12:01 a.m.

- The Registrar place the following terms, conditions and limitations on Dr. Waddell’s certificate of registration, effective immediately:

(i) Dr. Waddell shall comply with the College Policy “Closing a Medical Practice;”
(ii) Dr. Waddell will participate in and successfully complete, within six (6) months of the date of this Order, individualized instruction in professionalism and communications satisfactory to the College, with an instructor approved by the College, who shall provide a summative report to the College including his/her conclusion about whether Dr. Waddell successfully completed the instruction.

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(iii)Dr. Waddell shall be solely responsible for payment of all fees, costs,charges, expenses, etc., arising from the implementation of any of the terms of this Order.

- Dr. Waddell pay costs to the College in the amount of $10,370.00 within 30 days of the date of this Order.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Dr. Waddell waived his right to an appeal under subsection 70(1) of the Code and the Committee administered the public reprimand.

Decision: Download Full Decision (PDF)
Hearing Date(s): January 27, 2020

Waddell, John Maitland

CPSO#: 60969