Now-retired Regina doctor’s sexual assault acquittal upheld

Editor’s note: This story contains details that are graphic in nature.

The sexual assault allegations against Sylvester Ukabam won’t be getting another hearing after the Crown’s appeal of his acquittal was dismissed this month.

The now-retired gastroenterologist in Regina was charged with committing seven counts of sexual assault against five women during procedures and examinations starting in 2017.

A trial judge at what was then the Court of Queen’s Bench acquitted him of all charges.

In its appeal, the Crown argued the trial judge erred “when he instructed himself that he was not permitted to use common sense or take judicial notice of the idea that a woman can differentiate between the sensation of vaginal and anal penetration.”

Ukabam’s lawyers, however, argued that the acquittal was based on “fundamental principles of criminal law” and the “Crown’s inability to prove its case.”

The appeal decision by Justice J.A. Schwann said the trial judge did not make a finding that women can’t be trusted to know when they’ve been vaginally penetrated.

“He found, based on the evidence as a whole, including the medical evidence and the evidence of Dr. Ukabam, that each of the complainants were mistaken,” the decision read.

Ultimately, the court dismissed the Crown’s appeal in the case.

After trial judge Brian Scherman made his decision, complaints were lodged against him by two of the complainants in the case.

The woman who made the first complaint said at the time that she felt his reasoning came down to deciding she wasn’t a reliable witness because she had female genitalia.

“I found his decision to reflect an underlying attitude of ignorance and misogyny and gender bias that, to me, was so unsettling that I felt compelled to speak up,” the woman said.

She took particular issue with the judge accepting the defence argument that the alleged victims could have confused rectal penetration with vaginal penetration.

“They’re arguing that because a woman’s rectum and their vagina are so closely situated that it is possible for a woman to basically mix up her vagina with her rectum. And to me that concept is as ludicrous as a man confusing his penis with his rectum. But of course no one would ever call into question a man’s ability to differentiate,” said the woman.

There is a ban on publicly identifying the alleged victims in the case, so the woman cannot be named.

The Canadian Judicial Council had paused its review of Scherman due to the Crown’s appeal, because the issues in the complaints may have been addressed in the appeal.