
The Manitoba health care provider accused of sexually assaulting quite a few people was referred to as to the witness stand in the course of his demo.

On Thursday in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench, defence counsel opened its case by calling the accused Dr. Arcel Bissonnette to testify.

Bissonnette, a medical doctor who worked at the Ste. Anne Healthcare facility and the Seine Professional medical Centre in Ste. Anne, was charged with 22 counts of sexual assault.

6 of the charges have been stayed by the Crown before this year. This demo is working with 6 more counts of sexual assault, a person of which has been stayed.

Over the previous two weeks, the Crown has identified as 5 women who have been former people of the health practitioner to testify in the trial – all of whom the Crown alleges were sexually assaulted by him.

The Crown also known as an Ontario-based family members doctor to testify as an pro witness about relatives drugs including the perform of physical examinations.

Bissonnette, 63, instructed the court on Thursday he started off practising relatives medicine in 1990 at the Seine Clinical Centre. There, he testified, he saw up to 1,500 clients of all ages – from newborns to seniors at the clinic.

He testified about 40 per cent of his sufferers had been female. His function with these individuals would contain conducting breast and pelvic exams, pap smears, STI swabs and pelvic-rectal examinations.

All through his testimony, Bissonnette explained in element how he carried out these exams, which he testified was steady with his medical instruction.

When asked what he would do if a individual were not comfy with a process, Bissonnette stated he would not do the examination or at least the section of the test the affected individual was awkward with.

“Was there any signage up in the clinic that mentioned if you desire to have a chaperone, one particular would be delivered to you?” Defence counsel Josh Weinstein asked in the course of his direct assessment on Thursday early morning.

“No,” Bissonnette responded, adding he did not offer chaperones to sufferers.

“During this time that you had been practising in Ste. Anne, had been you aware of any need that you should really be providing a chaperone?” Weinstein questioned.

“No,” Bissonnette responded.

“Have you considering that been built knowledgeable that there may well be truly this sort of a necessity?” Weinstein questioned.

“Yeah,” he responded.

The Crown is envisioned to start out cross-assessment on Friday.

The remaining 10 charges against Bissonnette have not been tested in court and are scheduled to go to trial in February 2024.