B’nai Brith sues physician's college over complaint alleging Manitoba doctor made antisemitic comments
CBC
A national Jewish advocacy organization is taking legal action against Manitoba's medical regulator over a complaint it made last year alleging a prominent doctor made antisemitic comments on social media.
B’nai Brith Canada filed an application to the Manitoba Court of King's Bench last month, calling on the the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Manitoba to reconsider its complaint against Dr. Barry Lavallee.
According to the legal filing, the initial complaint to the college, written by B’nai Brith Canada's chief operating officer Judy Foldes in October 2024, claims Lavallee made several antisemitic comments on X under posts referencing the Israel-Hamas war.
The complaint accuses him of "disseminating hate and spreading antisemitic misinformation."
Screenshots of the comments, allegedly made between January and August 2024, were included in B’nai Brith's court application.
Under a post about Elon Musk saying X users that use the phrase "from the river to the sea" could face account suspension, the screenshot image shows Lavallee commenting "from the river to the sea…always."
B’nai Brith's complaint included in the legal filing called the phrase an "antisemitic slogan" that has been "widely interpreted to have a genocidal aim."
The advocacy organization's complaint claimed this and several other comments posted by Lavallee demonstrate "unprofessional conduct and a lack of integrity."
"As an authoritative organization dedicated to protecting the public and promoting the safe and ethical delivery of quality medical care by registrants in Manitoba, I urge you to take swift and decisive action to investigate these allegations and take appropriate disciplinary measures against Dr. Lavallee," Foldes wrote in the initial complaint.
Lavallee does not appear to have posted to his X profile since August 2024. Before that, he frequently reposted about the Israel-Hamas war on his account.
The legal filing includes a series of emails between B’nai Brith and the doctor's college inquiring about the progress of the complaint between October 2024 and September 2025.
Guillaume Poliquin, the college's assistant registrar of complaints and investigations, sent an email to B’nai Brith's legal affairs manager suggesting the organization didn't have standing to receive information about an investigation because it did not have a relationship with Lavallee.
"An individual/organization that brings forward information about a registrant is not treated as a complainant, with standing to receive information about an investigation, unless there has been some relationship between the registrant and that individual/organization," Poliquin wrote in the Sept. 3 email.
Poliquin said this complaint would need a registrar's referral to be further investigated — but the college can't disclose if that process has begun.
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