Dalhousie University student suspended despite not seeing some posts: lawyer

HALIFAX — Lawyers for a Dalhousie University dentistry student say the school unfairly suspended him based on Facebook material he hadn't seen.

Sarah MacIntosh told a news conference Wednesday that Dalhousie University concluded Ryan Millet was guilty of "blatant unprofessionalism" and suspended his clinic privileges earlier this month based on six specific posts made in a Facebook group, two of which he did not see.

"That finding was based on the limited fact that he was a member of a Facebook group in which other people posted inappropriate comments," MacIntosh said.

"If that's the new standard — guilt by association is the new standard for a finding of unprofessionalism — I mean people should be looking at what movies they watched, what parties they might have been at where other people made other inappropriate comments last weekend."

MacIntosh said Millet agrees five of the six posts that led to his suspension were offensive to varying degrees and one was a breach of patient confidentiality.

Millet was a member of a Facebook group where misogynistic comments were posted about female classmates, but his lawyers say he helped expose it.

MacIntosh said Millet has been unfairly targeted in a disciplinary hearing process and they want the university's senate to appoint an independent judge to figure out how to proceed.

Dalhousie University has said it is following a just process and will evaluate each case of the 13 men who were part of the Facebook group.

A Facebook page called Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen where sexually hateful comments about women were posted has been taken down.

But according to the CBC, members of the Facebook group voted on which woman they'd like to have ``hate'' sex with and joked about using chloroform on women. The CBC said in another post, a woman is shown in a bikini with a caption that says, ``Bang until stress is relieved or unconscious (girl).''