Committee: Discipline

Discipline Decision

Reprimand

Hearing Date: March 26, 2024

Summary:

THIS HEARING was held on March 26, 2024 via videoconference.

ON READING the Notice of Hearing dated May 5, 2023, the Agreed Statement of Facts dated March 19, 2024, and the Joint Submission on Penalty and Costs dated March 19, 2024, and on hearing the submissions of counsel for the College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists of Ontario (the “College”) and counsel for Gordon Riddell (the “Registrant”):

A. THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE FINDS that the Registrant has committed acts of professional misconduct pursuant to:

1. Subsection 51(1)(c) of the Health Professions Procedural Code, being Schedule 2 to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (the “Code”), and as defined in the following paragraphs of section 1 of Ontario Regulation 317/12 made under the Psychotherapy Act, 2007:

a. Paragraph 52 (engaging in conduct or performing an act relevant to the practice of the profession that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional); and

b. Paragraph 53 (engaging in conduct that would reasonably be regarded by members as conduct unbecoming a member of the profession)

B. THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE ORDERS THE FOLLOWING PENALTY AND COSTS:

1. The Registrant is required to appear before a panel of the Discipline Committee to be reprimanded following the hearing.

2. The Registrar is directed to suspend the Registrant’s certificate of registration for a periodof three months commencing on July 1, 2024, two months of which may be remitted if items 3(a) and 3(b) below are completed within three months of the Discipline Committee’s Order (the “Order”).

3. The Registrar is directed to immediately impose the following terms, conditions, and limitations on the Registrant’s certificate of registration, all of which shall be fulfilled at the expense of the Registrant and to the satisfaction of the Registrar:

a. The Registrant shall successfully complete the College’s Jurisprudence e-Learning Module within six months of the Order;

b. The Registrant shall obtain an unconditional pass of the PROBE ethics course within six months of the date of the Order;

c. The Registrant will not teach a psychotherapy course while the Registrant’s certificate of registration is suspended.

4. The Registrant is required to pay the College costs in the amount of $6,055, which can be paid in twelve monthly installments, with the first payment beginning 30 days from the date of the Order.

Current Status: Not yet completed.