Social worker disbarred, fined after stealing money from Montreal’s homeless

Homeless people stand outside the Old Brewery Mission in Montreal, on Monday, January 10, 2022. Montreal's homeless shelters are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases as temperatures drop to extreme lows starting Monday night. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

A social worker tasked with assisting some of Montreal’s most vulnerable people has been disbarred for five years after he was found guilty of stealing thousands of dollars meant for those in dire circumstances.

A recent 51-page Quebec Order of Social Workers and Family Therapists (OTSTCFQ) disciplinary board ruling found Patrick Girard guilty of two of disciplinary misconduct on June 4 and issued a ruling.

He has been disbarred for five years and ordered to pay $5,000.

Girard, according to the ruling, took $2,734 and change from a client and forged a signature while working a University of Montreal Hospital (CHUM) program run at the Old Brewery Mission office.

The money Girard took was donated and intended for those with little or no income needing last-resort assistance “to enable them to pay their living expenses, such as food, housing, etc,” the ruling reads.

One victim cited in the ruling was a homeless 58-year-old man suffering from a chronic psychotic disorder with “a high propensity for alcohol consumption, and has been the subject of a care and accommodation order since April 2016.”

All names of victims were removed from the ruling to protect the victims’ privacy.

The ruling adds that, “No professional may commit an act derogatory to the honour or dignity of his profession or the discipline of the members of the order, nor may he practice a profession, trade, industry, commerce, office or function that is incompatible with the honour, dignity or practice of his profession.”

“Let us emphasize from the outset the objective seriousness of a social worker’s appropriating funds belonging to a client (count 1) and forging another client’s signature of another client (count 3),” the ruling reads. “These are among the most serious acts derogatory to the honour or dignity of the profession.”

The order’s ruling says that social workers work directly with people who are suffering, have significant mental and/or social problems and in vulnerable situations.

“With the human element at the heart of professional practice, the public is justified in expecting social workers to take steps to establish and maintain a relationship based on trust, and to behave in a manner worthy of that trust,” it reads.

As such, the order deemed the actions Girard was accused of as significantly serious.

He was working as head of an intensive homelessness program, which gives medical, nursing and psychosocial support to vulnerable clients.

“As team leader, he enjoyed considerable autonomy,” the ruling reads. “By committing the offences, he abused the trust placed in him by his superiors and, in so doing, his employer at the time.”

In addition, the ruling says that during the hearings Girard continually interrupted witnesses who were testifying to criticize the guilty verdict and “to point out the negative consequences of the current disciplinary process on his personal life.”

“Such an attitude gives rise to a reasonable apprehension regarding his ability to empathy and to face up to his responsibilities,” the ruling reads, adding that the offences committed “calls into question the respondent’s integrity and probity, and is therefore detrimental to his reputation and the protection of the public.”

The ruling also notes Girard’s criminal record as an aggravating factor in his sentence.

He was convicted of theft, break and entering, bank fraud, impaired driving and breach of conditions dating back to 2007, the ruling says. He served a year in prison for one offence.

The CHUM had no comment on the case and the Old Brewery Mission said it had no further information to provide.