“Not very”, says the British Columbia Court of Appeal. When a screening committee decides whether there should be restrictions on the practitioner until the discipline hearing can be held, the primary issue is whether in all of the circumstances the public needs immediate protection. In Scott v. College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia, 2016 BCCA 180, the screening committee imposed an interim order requiring the massage therapist to post signs about and use a chaperone for treatments. The complaint was about sexual abuse. There were no witnesses or other evidence. The massage therapist argued that the allegations were unsubstantiated.
The court said that the role of the screening committee, in reviewing the strength of the case, is to make “a provisional assessment of the facts” to consider “the reliability of the evidence, its internal and external consistency, the plausibility of the complaint, and motivation. This is in aid of determining whether the complaint is manifestly unfounded or manifestly exaggerated (Perry). The inquiry committee’s mandate is not…to test the sufficiency of the evidence to establish his sexual misconduct”.