MONTREAL: Group wants circumcison age-restricted in Quebec

CTV News
January 9, 2014

Stop Circumcision Quebec wants more restrictions

Parliamentary hearings on the Charter of Quebec Values begin next week, but many groups are making their positions public now.

...A third group, Stop Circumcision Quebec, said the Charter of Values should do more than just ban the wearing of religious symbols by government employees and contractors: it wants the government to ban [No, age-restrict] circumcision.

The organization says circumcision is a religious rite that mutilates children, and should not be tolerated in a modern society.

Several countries have debate whether circumcision of males should be prohibited by law, but all countries allow i[t], and some have passed legislation explicitly allowing it for religious reasons.

Government hearings on Bill 60 begin Tuesday Jan. 14 in Quebec City.

QUEBEC: Many more complaints about doctor: may not circumcise

CJAD New
December 24, 2013

Circumcision doc suspended, for now

by Patrick Lejtenyi
Dr. Raymond Rezaie will not be performing any more circumcisions, at least in the immediate future.
He's accused of botching 31 circumcisions between July 2010 and October 2013 so badly that many of the babies needed corrective surgery.

The complaints against him were brought to the College of Physicians by a fellow doctor at Ste-Justine hospital.

An investigation into the complaints earlier this month concluded that the circumcisions were "inadequate" and "inappropriate."

It also described Rezaie as a danger to the public.

He faces a disciplinary hearing before the College some time in the new year.

In all 31 cases, the corrective surgery had to be performed while the baby was under general anesthetic.

The doctor who made the complainst says she has 80 files on him, and that the hospital received numerous complaints about his work from parents.

Earlier story

QUEBEC: More botches surface

CBC News
December 18, 2013

Botched circumcision allegations against Quebec doctor grow

A Montreal doctor accused of botching more than 30 infant circumcisions is facing another complaint about his medical conduct.

The investigative unit with Quebec's Collège des Médecins has already filed a complaint against the family doctor, documenting 31 cases in which boys who underwent circumcisions performed by Dr. Raymond Rezaie required corrective surgery.

The dates of the cases in that complaint range from July 2010 to October 2013. The matter is now before before the college's disciplinary council.

Now another mother, identified only as Nadia to protect the identity of her son, has added her name to the list of worried parents.

The boy's mother asked that the family's last name and the name of her son not be published because they do not want him to be associated with Rezaie and complaints against him.

Nadia told CBC’s Daybreak that Rezaie circumcised her three-month-old son this fall. She said she trusted the doctor because members of her mosque had recommended him.

But after the procedure, Nadia said her son was in pain for weeks.

An infection developed under some of the skin left behind after the procedure, and it started to bleed, she said.

Nadia said she returned to the doctor’s office several times for advice, but her son’s condition continued to worsen.

That’s when she took her son to the Sainte-Justine hospital, where she was told her son would need to see a surgeon.

“Three days later, I saw surgeon and he was like, ‘Wow what's that?’” Nadia told Daybreak.
Her son has since received corrective surgery and is recovering from the ordeal. Nadia filed her own complaint with the college of physicians this week.

“This is not fair. The babies suffer,” she said. 

Rezaie was not available for comment when he was contacted by CBC yesterday.

A decision on whether Rezaie can continue to perform circumcisions while he awaits the college's disciplinary council ruling is expected later this month.

QUEBEC: Doctor who botched 30 circumcisions "studied best methods"

CBC News
December 11, 2013

Quebec doctor accused of botching circumcisions

by
A Quebec doctor could be prohibited from performing circumcisions after Quebec's Collège des Médecins received a complaint that he'd performed more than 30 procedures resulting in complications that required further surgery to fix.

Dr. Raymond Rezaie will have a hearing before the college’s disciplinary council, after its investigative unit documented 30 cases in which boys who underwent circumcisions performed by the doctor required further corrective treatment under general anesthetic at Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital.

In one additional case noted in the complaint, a boy underwent corrective surgery at the Montreal Children's Hospital.

It is alleged that the doctor performed in an “inadequate and inappropriate way, a surgical circumcision under local anesthesia on a child.”

The disciplinary council has not yet set a date to hear the complaint, but earlier this week, internal investigators asked the college to ban Rezaie from performing circumcisions until a hearing can be held.

The disciplinary council is expected to make a decision on that request before the end of December.
Rezaie is a family doctor who began practising in Quebec in 2006.

On his website, Rezaie says he travelled across Canada researching the best infant-circumcision techniques by experienced doctors.

“Furthermore, he developed his own approaches to these surgeries, combining the most effective elements of what he learned,” the site reads.

According to the website, the doctor performs circumcisions at four clinics in the Montreal area.

...

A decision on the doctor’s conduct could take months.