Dentist in N.L. let correctional officer pull 'one or more' teeth from sedated inmate

In this Monday, March 7, 2005, file photo, a dentist works on a patient at a dental clinic. (Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle via AP, File)

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A dentist with practices across Atlantic Canada has been sanctioned in Newfoundland and Labrador for allowing a correctional officer to extract "one or more" teeth from a sedated inmate while another officer filmed the procedure with his phone.

A Dec. 9 decision from a Newfoundland and Labrador Dental Board tribunal says the incident took place on Oct. 16, 2020, at the Gander, N.L., office of Dr. Louis Bourget.

The document says Bourget instructed the correctional officer on how to use forceps to remove several teeth from the mouth of Blair Harris, who was an inmate in the provincial correctional system at the time.

"In fact, based on what Dr. Bourget reports a video of the event as showing, it is more than one tooth," the decision says. "In the video he showed the correctional officer how to hold the forceps to pick up four teeth." The decision describes in some detail how the correctional officer removed the teeth, in one case using "a twist of his wrist" and in another pulling so hard the tooth flew out and hit the wall in the clinic.

The decision states the board has not been able to see the video that was shot, "despite its best efforts and despite the efforts of Dr. Bourget to make it available." However, Bourget has seen the video, and he described its contents to the board, the decision says.

"We are shocked and disgusted by what went on," says the decision, which is signed by Dr. Daniel Greene and Dr. Glen Crane.

The decision followed a Nov. 20 hearing on four charges faced by Bourget under the provincial Dental Act. Bourget pleaded guilty to all charges and included an admission statement along with the agreed statement of facts.

The tribunal decision says that during the hearing Bourget's lawyer "characterized his client's actions as ludicrous, foolish, mindless, and unthinking."

"To that we would add the words shocking, horrifying, and disgusting," the decision says. "Indeed, it is difficult to conceive what would have possessed Dr. Bourget to have permitted such things as went on, to go on."

His licence to practise in Newfoundland and Labrador was suspended for six months, and he was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine, as well as $22,500 to cover part of the cost of the investigation and hearing. His practice will also be monitored for two years. Bourget's website says he is an oral surgeon based in Dartmouth, N.S., with satellite locations in New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

Nova Scotia's dental board has also disciplined Bourget, requiring him to complete a "remedial module" at Dalhousie University about ethics and professional duties. A notice on the board's website said a disciplinary committee approved a settlement agreement on June 11, 2021, stipulating a licence suspension of almost five months "on a time served basis."

The RCMP said on Feb. 5, 2021, that Bourget and two correctional officers had been charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in relation to the incident. A court docket shows Bourget and one officer, Ronald McDonald, are scheduled to appear in provincial Supreme Court on March 2.

St. John's lawyer Rosellen Sullivan says the charges against her client, correctional officer Roy Goodyear, were dismissed in a preliminary hearing last November. "The case against my client was incredibly, incredibly weak," Sullivan said in an interview Wednesday.

Both the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador dental boards say a criminal conviction could result in further disciplinary action.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2022.