TEXAS GOSPEL STAFF
A Canadian family doctor recently lost her legal challenge against a warning she received from medical authorities over comments she made about COVID-19 and religious practices. The case began in 2020 when the doctor, who is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, publicly objected to her church’s decision to stop using a shared communion spoon during the pandemic.
The doctor wrote several online posts and letters about the issue, signing them with her medical credentials and identifying herself as a “front line physician.” In these communications, she argued that diseases had never been transmitted through communion in the church’s 2,000-year history and suggested that COVID-19 was being used as a pretext to change religious practices. She also compared COVID-19 to other diseases like HIV and SARS, noting that communion practices hadn’t changed during those outbreaks.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons received a complaint about these statements, leading to an investigation. While the College acknowledged that the doctor was expressing religious rather than medical views, they were concerned that her use of medical credentials could lead people to believe she was speaking with medical authority about public health measures. As a result, they issued her a caution to be more mindful of her tone and clarity when discussing public health-related information, given her position of trust as a physician.
The doctor appealed this decision to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB), arguing that it violated her right to express her religious beliefs. However, the Board upheld the original decision, noting that while the doctor was free to express her religious views, the concern was specifically about her identifying herself as a physician while making these statements about disease transmission during a pandemic.
Finally, the doctor took her case to court for judicial review, but the court dismissed her appeal. The judges found that the original decision to issue a caution was reasonable and appropriately balanced the doctor’s right to religious expression with the medical profession’s duty to protect public health. They emphasized that the caution was meant to be educational rather than punitive, and that it didn’t prevent her from expressing her religious views – it only addressed her use of medical credentials while doing so.
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