Doctors calling on Canadian government to take action against abusive treatment

Dr. Alika Lafontaine in Grande Prairie, Alta., says he's been scratched, spit on, swung at and called a bad father at work. 

The abuse, he says, comes from patients or their families, and sometimes random people on the internet, whose stress could be exacerbated by a health concern or the pandemic. 

"When you come through those hospital doors, I recognize that in lots of ways I'm your lifeline and gateway to better health. And because of that, I personally always had a very high threshold for these types of incidents and situations. I think my colleagues, as well," he told CTV News Edmonton in an interview on Thursday.

The Canadian Medical Association says is asking the Canadian government for protection from those they are helping. 

"We do know when protests were happening outside hospitals not too long ago, that there were objects that were thrown. People were shoved. Other incidents that would be classified as physical violence in all other settings," Lafontaine said. 

Specifically, the CMA wants the Liberals to follow through on a promise to legislate protections for hospitals and hospital workers. The association believes creating a new offence in the Criminal Code would disincentivize harassment, threats and violence by the public. 

"Just because you walk onto hospital grounds or in hospital doors, the expectation should be that you act the same way as you would just interacting with an average Canadian," Lafontaine told CTV News Edmonton. 

The CMA has no hard data about the frequency of these types of incidents. 

In a study published earlier in the year, one in four American physicians reported being attacked on social media in 2019. 

A related factor is that abusive treatment isn't recorded as often as it occurs, the CMA believes. Not only is it -- as Lafontaine himself said -- considered a part of the job, there is no clear mechanism to report and address a problem without fear of retaliation. 

The Grande Prairie doctor says he knows colleagues who have shut down their social media accounts or created anonymous profiles because of online harassment, and others who avoid certain topics for fear of how patients will react. 

"That doesn't happen in isolation. All these things kind of collect and aggregate together until they spill over into real world incidents that actually cause great harm," Lafontaine said. 

"Threats of violence -- whether real or perceived -- are just another layer that will eventually lead to providers walking away from their jobs, changing the character of the type of clinical care that they provide. These are the types of things we can't afford in the midst of all these parallel crises."

Lafontaine says the CMA has heard positive feedback from the federal justice ministry, lending hope a change will soon be included in the legislative agenda. 

In a statement, the press secretary of Canada's minister of justice and attorney general reiterated the government was committed to making it illegal to both block access to a health facility and intimidate or threaten health-care workers. 

"We are currently looking at all options to make that promise a reality as soon as possible," Chantalle Aubertin wrote. 

"There is absolutely no place for intimidation or threats to our hardworking health care workers and anyone seeking health services, particularly at hospitals and clinics." 

The CMA is also asking websites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to develop a plan to combat the harassment and threats that take place on their platforms. 

"At the end of the day, protecting health providers is really about helping and protecting patients, as well," Lafontaine said. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson