Quebec suspends psychiatrist for racist comments, excessive drugging

April 1, 2011

MONTREAL - The Quebec College of Physicians has suspended and fined a psychiatrist and radio host who once told listeners blacks have low IQs and people with Down syndrome are lesser human beings.

Pierre Mailloux was also sanctioned for prescribing patients elevated doses of antipsychotic drugs. His licence was suspended for two years because of the megadose treatment that has been debunked in the psychiatric community for more than 10 years.

Mailloux often prescribed combinations of several antipsychotics, a practice the college denounced.

Mailloux was also fined $30,000 for racially charged, sexually graphic and off-the-cuff statements that have drawn the ire of regulators.

He was sanctioned by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission in 2005 for telling the French CBC North American blacks have lower IQs than whites.

After signer Janet Jackson exposed her nipple at a 2004 Super Bowl concert, Mailloux said the singer's behaviour was "typical of African or black people, who do not know how to behave even though they left Africa many years ago."

He has also referred to Sikhs as "bozos," Russians as thieves and Arabs as lazy.

The Broadcast Standards Council ruled against Mailloux for his November 2005 criticism of a television commercial that said people with Down syndrome were no less valuable to society than others.

"I find it degrading for normal people to be told they have the same value as someone who is truly abnormal and handicapped," Mailloux said at the time.

The College of Physicians said Mailloux's comments were "unworthy of a doctor and derogatory to the honour and the dignity of the profession."

The College also said Mailloux has never apologized for his actions and will likely repeat them.

In an interview with QMI Agency on Friday, Mailloux said he will continue to speak out because he's protected by free-speech provisions of the Charter of Rights.

"That's my style," said Mailloux, who quit the radio business in 2007. "Sometimes, I get vulgar. What's the problem?"

While he is sometimes confronted in the street by ethnic Montrealers upset about his views, Mailloux says many listeners agree with him.

"I was on the air for 11 years, every afternoon" he said. "That should answer your question."

As for his megadose treatments for mental illness, Mailloux says they're effective despite the objections from his professional order.

"I am an avant-garde psychiatrist," said Mailloux.  "These are not medical erros and the proof that my treatments work is that I continue to treat these patients at their request." 

Source: Brian Daly, "Psychiatrist who challenged black IQs suspended," Toronto Sun, April 1, 2011.