Several of the letters to the editor today are about the "Massage therapist accused of sexual misconduct" story, which appeared on the front page of our Tuesday, March 1 print edition, as well as online.
Each of those letters asks, in one form or another, why these allegations are front page news. Trevor Scott's case is significant for several reasons.
First, as the lead paragraph of the story stresses, the B.C. College of Massage Therapists has brought a legal case to the B.C. Court of Appeal about this matter. The college's mandate, as stated on its website, is to protect the public "by receiving and acting on complaints." Although Scott isn't facing criminal charges, the college did order Scott to have a chaperone in the room with him when massaging women after an October 2014 complaint. In other words, the college believes the complaint still had enough merit to place a restriction on Scott in his practice, regardless of whether there wasn't enough evidence to justify legal prosecution. The college's request to the court was to keep those restrictions in place until a formal disciplinary hearing, scheduled for this week, could be heard.
Second, Scott is a registered massage therapist and operates under that professional designation. As the Registered Massage Therapists Association of B.C. states on its website, massage therapy "has been a regulated health care profession since 1946" and is covered under the provincial Health Profession Act. That makes Scott a health care professional, no different from a doctor, a nurse or a dentist. Health care professionals deal with vulnerable people and those people put their trust in those professionals. Similar allegations made against health care workers, teachers or any other professional facing allegations of abuse of trust have been covered in the past and will continue to warrant news stories and front-page attention in the future.
Third, this case has already been public for some time. It was first reported in the Vancouver Province newspaper, both online and in their print edition, in early January. That first story was based on a Dec. 17, 2015, citation regarding Scott posted on the college's website under disciplinary actions. The Citizen published an edited version of The Province's story to coincide with the beginning of Scott's disciplinary hearing.
Fourth, and the key piece everyone agrees on, Scott has not been found guilty of anything and the news story stresses that point. Serious allegations have been made against him, however, and those allegations have been found worthy of further investigation and action by a provincial oversight authority, including making those allegations public. At that point, it is our responsibility to share that information with our readers.
This case has broader legal implications that will also be covered. As the story states, provincial health regulators are hoping the courts can provide clarification on how they should proceed with sexual misconduct allegations, which often boil down to contradictory "he said, she said" statements.
The letters to the editor are calling The Citizen's reporting of these allegations against Scott irresponsible. To address that, let's look at this situation in reverse. If The Citizen did not publish this story, readers and residents would have rightly accused us of being irresponsible for putting one individual's reputation ahead of the public's right to know about serious allegations made against a local healthcare professional that are being investigated by a provincial oversight agency.
What happens next is up to the B.C. Court of Appeal and the B.C. College of Massage Therapists. We will report those decisions when they are made and whatever they may be.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
