Woman needed therapy after 'disgusting' examination by doctor, sex assault trial told

WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it.

A witness in the sexual assault trial of a former Manitoba doctor cried as she told court on Tuesday how she felt violated and powerless.

"It was easier to pretend it didn't happen. I didn't have the confidence to trust myself," the woman said during the second day of the trial.

Arcel Bissonnette is accused of assaulting female patients when he worked in Ste. Anne, a town southeast of Winnipeg, from 2004 to 2017. He also practised at a clinic in Lorette.

In total, he was charged with 22 counts of sexual assault and has pleaded not guilty to all of them. He is currently on trial for five counts before a judge alone. The trial is scheduled to last until May 26, and another 10 counts are scheduled to be tried in February 2024, while seven counts have been stayed.

A publication ban is in place on any information that could identify the complainants.

The woman testified Tuesday at Court of King's Bench in Winnipeg that Bissonnette was not her regular doctor, but she was in such pain following the removal of an ovarian cyst in 2001 that she needed immediate help and went to the clinic in Lorette.

She said she was told to get fully undressed, which struck her as odd. Bissonnette then conducted vaginal, rectal and breast exams. The woman did not understand why the latter two were needed and still doesn't.

She described the rectal exam as double penetration, with Bissonnette's fingers in both her vagina and rectum.

"I was just frozen in shock at that moment," she said. "I couldn't make sense of it."

Asked if she said anything to the doctor at the time, the woman said no.

"I'm desperate for answers about what's going on with my health," she said. "I didn't feel like I had the right to object."

She described the vaginal exam as taking far longer than she experienced in prior exams and any she's had since.

"It felt like he was looking for a marble in there. He just looked and looked and looked," she said. "It's hard for me to talk about because it's just so disgusting."

During the rectal exam, Bissonnette continued to sit between her legs and looked "intently" at her vagina, rather than standing off to the side, which is what she experienced at other exams, the woman said.

She described those other exams as being "fairly short" and robotic, with the doctor explaining what was happening.

"This wasn't like that," she said. Bissonnette was silent most of the time and didn't explain what he was doing or why, she said.

She sat in her car afterward, feeling shock, distraught, in disbelief and nauseous, she said.

"I had to collect myself before I drove home."

Those feelings flooded back in November 2020, she said, when media reported Bissonnette had been charged with six counts of sexual assault on former patients and police asked other potential victims to come forward.

The woman said she started shaking and experienced "crushing chest pain."

"I knew I had to do something … for my own mental health and moral compass," she said. "So he didn't keep doing this to other people."

In speaking to police, she found she was saying things that were too vague. She was unable to go into details.

"Even when I spoke to police, I didn't want it to be true. I was in denial," she said. "My emotions made me hold back. It's hard to say disgusting things to a stranger who I know is going to question me.

"I knew something bad happened to me, but I didn't have the words."

She went to a therapist for help before she could provide a more complete statement to police in October 2022.

She said she learned to cope with what she went through "so it didn't consume me." Therapy helped her to shed the shame she felt and to talk about it out loud, she added.

Defence lawyer Lisa LaBossiere routinely noted nearly two decades had passed between the woman's exam and when she spoke to police, calling into question her memory — and if she perhaps gave Bissonnette the benefit of the doubt, that what happened was medically necessary, until charges were announced.

The woman said she tried to justify what happened so she could move on and not have it cloud her life.

"I didn't want it to be true, but my body told me it did happen," she said.

LaBossiere cited the woman's statements to police in 2020 in which she said, "I don't have a clear memory of it" and used words like "vague" and "probable" in describing what happened. Those remarks are quite different from the certainty the woman now claims to have, LaBossiere said.

"I wasn't trying to be dishonest," the woman said about her statements to police, noting they were made before her therapy, before she had time to better absorb and articulate it all.

"I'm sorry my statement isn't perfect. I'm just doing my best."

LaBossiere also noted the woman told police she "checked out" at some point during the exam, trying to disconnect her emotions from what was happening, questioning her recall of the events.

The woman told court she was trying not to pay attention to certain things, but "you still feel what they're doing. You just wish it to end."

Bissonnette was barred from practising after the initial six charges were laid. An additional 16 counts were added in 2021 after more women filed reports.

A trial on the original six charges was scheduled for January 2023, but the Crown entered a stay of proceedings, saying the likelihood of conviction had changed with new evidence that came to light. Another count was also stayed at that time.

Six witnesses are expected to be called in the current trial, five of whom are former patients and one of whom is a doctor who will testify about the proper procedures for physical exams.

The remaining 10-count indictment against Bissonnette is set for yet another trial, beginning in February 2024.

Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. ​​If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.