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Toronto dentist who had sex with patient and fathered her child gets licence revoked

The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario revoked Amir Haydarian's licence on Monday. (Amir Haydarian/Facebook - image credit)
The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario revoked Amir Haydarian's licence on Monday. (Amir Haydarian/Facebook - image credit)

A Toronto dentist has had his licence to practise revoked by the provincial regulator, who found he committed professional misconduct after he loaned money to one patient and got into a two-year extramarital affair and had a child with another.

The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario found Amir Haydarian to be guilty of "disgraceful, dishonourable, unprofessional or unethical conduct" and sexual abuse of a patient in a penalty hearing on Monday.

The disciplinary panel ordered Haydarian's certificate of registration to be revoked effective immediately.

And while the panel issued a reprimand, it won't be administered at this time.

"Dr. Haydarian has appealed the earlier findings of sexual abuse and professional misconduct," said communications director Lesley Byrne in an email.

Byrne said Haydarian's counsel's request for an adjournment of the penalty hearing was partially granted. Now, all parties must make written submissions on the rest of the penalty, which is security for costs of counselling and costs of the discipline proceeding.

Byrne said the panel will deliberate after April 27. No timeline has been set for the release of their decision.

Symon Zucker, Haydarian's lawyer, said Monday that aside from the penalty costs, the next stage is the appeal.

"Dr. Haydarian continues to take the positions that he was married, that it was a valid marriage under both Islamic and Canadian law ... and that hopefully he'll be vindicated at the appeal level," said Zucker.

In a document outlining the reasons for their decision released Monday, the panel said there's "no dispute" that Haydarian was in a sexual relationship with his client that produced a child in 2019, and that Haydarian did not dispute that he co-signed a mortgage for a patient.

Dentist 'inappropriately involved himself' with patients

The disciplinary hearings began in January last year over allegations he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a patient and that he loaned money to a second patient by co-signing a mortgage with her.

CBC News reported last month that both acts were alleged by the college to be in violation of provincial law and professional rules.

According to provincial law, dentists are strictly forbidden from engaging in any kind of sexual relations with any patient who is not their spouse.

Haydarian argued his marriage to another woman ended in divorce in a ceremony-by-proxy in Iran before he married his patient.

While she said she did decide to accept his proposal for marriage because he seemed to be a "good package," she denied ever marrying him and the panel found in her favour in its final decision.

In a separate case involving a patient, the panel also concluded that Haydarian crossed the patient/dentist boundary by entering into a financial relationship with a patient.

In the panel's reasoning document, the panel said both incidents would reasonably be regarded as "disgraceful, dishonourable, unprofessional or unethical" by others in the profession.

"In both circumstances, Dr. Haydarian used his position as a health-care provider to inappropriately involve himself in his patients' lives," reads the document.