Med School Whistleblower Filed Human Rights Complaint Against Dalhousie University!

A medical student from Western Canada who made the terrible mistake of choosing Dalhousie University for training as a Psychiatric Doctor anonymously blew the whistle on what she faced. According to her,

I’ve personally experienced substantial persecution from Dalhousie University’s psychiatry training program for coming forward about various issues, with repeated retaliation from those with more power than me. Yet I feel that the public needs to be protected from bad psychiatrists practicing in the province, even if it means sacrificing myself.

She claimed she filed a Human Rights complaint against Dalhousie University. To quote her:

The problematic institution was under investigation by the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, and as of November 20, 2025, the NSHRC’s Human Rights Commissioners convened and recommended this case be heard at a Board of Inquiry. In other words, the actions of Dalhousie’s Psychiatry Training Program will be heard in public human rights court, and all evidence will become available to the public in due time.

She claimed she was forced to take medical leave due to relentless bullying by a female member of her cohort. This person, a Nova Scotia native, apparently went on to practice as a Psychiatrist without much repercussion, despite the serious allegations against her made to the University. We also learn that her supervisor Dr. Louise Klipin committed suicide. Sounds like a great place to train as a Psychiatrist. To quote,

Instead, Dalhousie made both Dr. [redacted] and myself go through a flimsy mediation that was in no way restorative or healing, with no remorse or reconciliation required, and we both had to sign a non-disclosure agreement that expired when Dr. [redacted] graduated in the Class of 2023. Yes, I was forced to sign an NDA instead of Dalhousie helping me when I was being bullied. And yes, Dr. [redacted] and her associate bullies are now practicing psychiatrists, possibly bullying other vulnerable trainees now.

Whenever Dalhousie makes people sign NDAs, they are usually covering things up. And native students of Nova Scotia are implicitly aware that whistleblowers are supposed to be ostracized. To quote,

It’s an ongoing pattern in Nova Scotia; every time I stood up for myself, the perpetrators made clear that I did something bad by being outspoken instead of “keeping my head down”, which a former Dalhousie Psychiatry program director recommended that I do when I told him I was being bullied. That is Dalhousie Psychiatry’s approach to bullying: tell the victim to “keep your head down”. My persecutors successfully branded me as the Wicked Witch of the West any time I stood up for what’s right.

She wrote at length about a toxic workplace culture in the Maritimes, particularly with respect to Medicine. To quote,

The NS health authority claimed to be committed to creating a “safe and harassment-free work environment” and initiated a respectful workplace policy in 2017. Despite the lengthy legal case of Dr. Horne, and the recommendations from the public inquiry to improve the culture within the health authority, further allegations of a toxic workplace later made headlines in 2022. Unfortunately, some physicians hoping to make Halifax their permanent home have also faced “racism, discrimination, double standards, disrespect and division” within the system, such as Dr. Mohammed Al-Mansob. He described receiving fewer opportunities in the workplace, being held to different standards, “facing accusations of bad behaviour without evidence, and a lack of action from leadership”. He ended up leaving the province to continue his fellowship training in Toronto. Dr. Mohamed Othman reported similar experiences of toxicity, stating, “It was like a circus.” Dr. Ahmed Al Lawati further described passive-aggressiveness and microaggressions in the workplace, and pointed out that those persecuting him were smart enough to never abuse him in front of other people. He was placed on academic probation after he was frequently forced to be evaluated by the same people who were targeting him. He started to look at alternative options and moved to Hamilton, Ontario. In response to these three claims of systematic racism, Dalhousie University’s medical school declined to be interviewed by CBC and instead sent a statement claiming to take all incidents of mistreatment very seriously. The health authority later claimed the problems were fixed, while also shutting down their cardiac surgery fellowship program.

[…]

Later in 2023, a newly published peer-reviewed research article found that “mistreatment of medical residents in the Maritimes remains common and underreported”. Residents who had experienced mistreatment pointed out that the medical hierarchy enables mistreatment, and that many don’t report incidents of mistreatment because of fears of retaliation. Problems with harassment within medical culture at Dalhousie University continue to the present day, as the university announced in June 2024 that they had pulled all medical students and post-graduate residency trainees from any cardiac training at some New Brunswick sites of the university. The reasons given were again behaviours related to intimidation, harassment, and discrimination.

She claimed that a powerful male psychiatrist made advances on her (she being a trainee), and after being rejected, tried to destroy her career. A complaint was made to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, and after a two-year investigation, they let him off with a warning. She claimed that she informed the then Director of Dalhousie University’s Psychiatry Program, who rather than being supportive, showed so much bias, that she was forced to take an extended trauma-related medical leave from Dalhousie University! The said Director stepped down from her position in 2024 after many other student complaints questioned her professionalism on other matters but apparently this person still sits on the Competence Committee and Residency Program Committee.

She claimed that a supervisor for her inpatient psychiatry rotation started a personal vendetta against her.

Nova Scotia Health is currently going big on the digitization of health records. What most people don’t know is that scores of people with the right credentials (or access to the right credentials) can peep into anyone’s private health records, which are now just a fingertip away. The Whistleblower claimed that a Nova Scotia licensed Doctor accessed her private health records without her permission, and around the same time, sexually assaulted her! To quote,

While the police were eager to charge him, they informed me that they could not do so with my identity protected. The rationale is that I had no reason to fear for my safety, as we are living in difference provinces thousands of kilometres away from each other. Given how the public treats victims of sexual assault, I chose not to have him charged as I could not do it with my identity protected. I am dismayed that this broken system allows sexual predators to get away with it because the system refuses to adequately protect the victims. As of December 2025, our medical regulatory body, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, is still determining what action to take against him [……]

It seems that the Whistleblower returned back to the West. And she is yet another convincing (and eloquent) witness to the toxicity and dysfunctionalism of Nova Scotia. To quote,

Unfortunately, these problems are cemented in the fact that Nova Scotians are generally not receptive to feedback. I’ve frequently seen that any criticism is met with defensiveness, as locals try to rationalize their decision to live in that province by logicking that the complainant must be the problem because surely, Nova Scotia can’t be that bad. It triggers too much cognitive dissonance to believe that the place one has tolerated one’s whole life is, yes, actually that bad! Cognitive defenses lead people to scapegoat the victim of mistreatment, the Wicked Witch of the West, in order to justify the decision to continue supporting problematic systems, which means little changes and the problems are reinforced. And that is why this “come-from-away” finally went away. I left and returned to the home province where I have always been celebrated and supported, where anyone who tried to pick on me was quickly and appropriately redirected, where the words “justice” and “human rights” actually have some meaning. I returned home, because the way I was treated by Dalhousie University and the cold-hearted psychiatrists of Nova Scotia put me dangerously close to death by suicide. I returned home, because there are too many monsters in NS, and I continue to have PTSD that developed because of them. I returned home, because every time I step foot in the province of NS, my protector part takes over and I am unable to be my true self due to the deep lack of safety. I returned home, because you cannot effectively cure trauma that is ongoing, and the province of Nova Scotia is itself one of my most traumatic experiences. As someone told me, “Not all universities are student-centered. Dal definitely isn’t.” In a province that ranks the worst economy in North America, Dalhousie University has a revenue of approximately $1 billion per year. Yet when it comes to caring about students enough to return what was taken from them, the answer is no. This is not an institution that demonstrates concern for its students, nor for the time taken from them or the opportunity costs imposed on their lives. I don’t know how Nova Scotia is going to resolve these longstanding, entrenched problems of toxic workplace issues. Multiple healthcare providers who have trained or worked in the region have left due to the province’s pervasive culture of discrimination, bullying, and harassment. Though I had to leave that province to recover my sanity, my prayers remain with those left behind that the Nova Scotian dystopia can somehow, eventually, be changed, for the sake of the many good people who truly deserve better, while realistically knowing nothing will truly change. For anyone considering a move to Nova Scotia, be very careful. I would give anything to take back ever interviewing at Dalhousie, ever believing the lies of an institution that already had a terrible reputation for bullying, ever naively trusting they could do better. No, I believe this is a narcissistic institution incapable of the level of accountability required for authentic change.

The whistleblower in question posted this online on 20th December 2025, and it remained online as of 10th January 2026, when I first came across it. But as of 11th January 2026, it has been scrubbed! I wish her well. Its not easy being bullied by a billion dollar institution.

Note that Psychiatry as a profession, sadly attracts many cryptos, because they love the mind-games, the gaslighting and labeling intelligent people as mental cases. Add that to a toxic place like Dalhousie University……