The systemic bias that has historically failed Black people in the USA is no less evident in Canada. That reality is laid bare in the case of Dr. Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician who was acquitted of sexual assault after years of humiliation and socioeconomic losses. Despite his acquittal, he said the silence of the Canadian press shows bias.
By: Stacy M. Brown, NNPA
The systemic bias that has historically failed Black people in the USA is no less evident in Canada. That reality is laid bare in the case of Dr. Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician who was acquitted of sexual assault after years of humiliation and socioeconomic losses. Despite his acquittal, he said the silence of the Canadian press shows bias.
Dr. Bamgbade has worked as a physician for three decades across Nigeria, Britain, the USA, and Canada. He mentors junior professionals, collaborates in research, and provides peer reviews for journals. Despite opposition from Canadian authorities, he single-handedly established a community pain clinic in February 2018 in British Columbia, Canada. Unlike other pain clinics, the Salem Anesthesia Pain Clinic in Surrey only treats Medicare patients without out-of-pocket costs to patients. The clinic treats police, healthcare, skilled, and unskilled workers and helps them function effectively in their professional and family roles.
According to Dr. Bamgbade, in summer 2020, a 58-year-old Caucasian female patient invited Dr. Bamgbade’s 17-year-old son to her home. Dr. Bamgbade’s son, who was working as the clinic’s receptionist, declined her invitation. At a subsequent visit, the lady informed Dr. Bamgbade that she has a new 17-year-old live-in boyfriend. According to Dr. Bamgbade, the woman stated that she took in the vulnerable boy and a 14-year-old girl from her neighbors. The woman allegedly described having unprotected sex with the boy while the girl watched. “She was taking money from these vulnerable teenagers,” Dr. Bamgbade asserted.
He said he advised her against these illegal behaviors. On the same day, she retaliated by falsely accusing the doctor of physical assault. However, eyewitnesses and forensic hospital examination disproved her allegations. Dr. Bamgbade said the toxicology report showed illegal opioids, sedatives, psychedelics, and stimulants. “She abuses opioids that are unavailable in North America,” he stated. “She was previously jailed in the USA for opioid trafficking and deported. She is estranged from her family and continues to sell drugs.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence favoring Dr. Bamgbade, he said the regulators and police unfairly punished him. “They publicized and perpetuated the unfair punishment,” he asserted. “They ignored the woman’s criminal activities.”
In summer 2022, Dr. Bamgbade said a 65-year-old South Asian woman secretly discussed his publicized perpetuated punishment with her husband. He said she tried to leverage this “to extort the doctor for drugs and money.”
He noted that she arrived crying in the clinic’s reception, where other patients wait, prompting Dr. Bamgbade to show her to an examination room. “She told the doctor that she did not take her morning doses of analgesics and anxiolytics and requested these from him,” Dr. Bamgbade said.
The doctor gave her the same dose of her usual daily anxiolytic. He said she tried to hug him, but he rejected her. He said the patient waited half an hour for the doctor to return with his nurse. After the doctor refused the patient’s request for more narcotics and sedatives, he said she falsely accused him of touching her fully clothed body. There were other staff and patients in the clinic at the time, Dr. Bamgbade noted.
Without warning, six police cars stormed Dr. Bamgbade’s family celebration, and he said they terrorized his family and guests. “The police vandalized the clinic, manipulated evidence, and destroyed CCTV evidence,” he remarked. After three years of delays and a trial, Dr. Bamgbade was acquitted of the false allegations made by the 65-year-old lady. The judge ruled that the complainant’s account was riddled with “material inconsistencies and improbabilities.”
“This woman previously tried to extort other people and organizations. She commits disability social assistance fraud,” Dr. Bamgbade alleges.
He said the police officers mounted a media campaign against him, looking for other patients to complain against him. As a result, a 46-year-old South Asian woman accused him of unwanted touching. Dr. Bamgbade said he discharged the woman from his clinic in 2019, but she continued to hound him and gave him a Google review in early 2022. Three years after she accused the doctor, the court dismissed the case. Under cross-examination, Dr. Bamgbade said the woman’s criminal life unraveled, and she refused to continue testifying. “She has committed multiple identity fraud,” he demanded. “She was previously convicted of assault, road rage, fraud, and extortion. She makes her second ex-husband pay child support for a child that he did not father. She commits disability social assistance fraud. She uses a fake bachelor’s degree to work unlawfully.”
Despite Dr. Bamgbade’s acquittal of all the allegations, the damage proved excessive. “I’m a Black man in Canada. I keep it together,” he said. “It’s been five years of one thing after another. Based on falsehoods, the regulators, police, and prosecutors are hounding me. They’ve cost me so much. Everything they did was to strip me of dignity.
His story clarifies that the presumption of guilt and the silence after acquittal are not confined to American courts. In Canada, as in the USA, Black professionals remain targets of systemic discrimination, paraded as criminals when accused and abandoned when proven innocent.
Dr. Olumuyiwa Bamgbade is an accomplished healthcare leader focusing on value-based healthcare delivery. A specialist physician with extensive training across Nigeria, Britain, the USA, and South Korea, he offers a global perspective to clinical practice and health systems innovation. He is an adjunct professor at academic institutions across Africa, Europe, and North America and has published 45 peer-reviewed scientific papers in PubMed-indexed journals. His global research collaborations span more than 22 countries, including Nigeria, the USA, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, South Africa, Armenia, Britain, Australia, Iran, and China. Dr. Bamgbade is the director of Salem Pain Clinic, a specialist and research clinic in Surrey, BC, Canada, that focuses on researching and managing pain, health equity, injury rehabilitation, neuropathy, insomnia, societal safety, substance misuse, medical sociology, public health, medicolegal science, and perioperative care.
