A former B.C. therapeutic massage therapist has been disciplined for launching a “marketing campaign of retribution” in opposition to a girl who posted a unfavourable evaluate about him on-line, then repeatedly insulted employees at his skilled faculty after an investigation was launched into his behaviour.
Jeremy Jakobsze of Maple Ridge, about 37 kilometres east of Vancouver, has already resigned his licence throughout the course of the investigation by the School of Therapeutic massage Therapists of B.C. (CMTBC). Now, he may even must pay $12,000 in fines and prices, obtain a proper reprimand and face a 10-month suspension if he decides to return to the career, in response to a brand new public discover from the faculty.
The penalty determination follows an earlier dedication from a school disciplinary panel that Jakobsze dedicated misconduct when he contacted a potential affected person’s employer, filed a grievance together with her skilled regulator and referred to as the RCMP in response to her unfavourable Google evaluate.
“Partaking in a marketing campaign of retribution in opposition to a potential affected person because the respondent did would moderately be thought of by members of the career to be dishonourable, disgraceful, and unprofessional,” the three-person panel wrote in July.
Jakobsze additionally dedicated misconduct in his exchanges with faculty employees, together with an e-mail wherein he referred to one in every of them as “somebody with a psychological delay,” the panel discovered.
“He repeatedly insulted and derided them whereas they have been merely [fulfilling] their statutory capabilities,” the July determination says.
In an e-mail to CBC on Wednesday, Jakobsze accused the faculty of anti-male bias.
“CMTBC is criminally [liable] for being an confederate to human rights violations,” he wrote.
He alleged he was “publicly shamed” by the faculty in retaliation for submitting a grievance claiming his privateness rights have been violated by employees throughout the investigation.
Jakobsze had objected to the truth that an investigation report was despatched to his dwelling by mail, and not using a requirement for a signature. The self-discipline panel rejected these arguments in its July determination, calling them “irrelevant” to the case at hand.
Jackobsze additionally advised CBC he solely took the actions he did as a result of he believed the potential affected person was a hazard to the general public. The panel disagreed, saying he “had completely no foundation or justification” for these claims and solely supposed to punish her.
He stated he plans to launch a petition calling for Well being Minister Adrian Dix to overturn the disciplinary findings, take away the faculty’s board and govt, after which resign from his cupboard place.
‘He was relentless in his marketing campaign in opposition to her’
The saga started in June 2020, when a potential affected person visited Jakobzse’s workplace, in response to a Sept. 19 penalty determination. The affected person is known as AA in faculty paperwork.
AA wasn’t carrying a masks — they weren’t provincially mandated on the time — and she or he claimed Jakobsze was unnecessarily aggressive in response.
He didn’t deal with her, and she or he went dwelling and posted a unfavourable evaluate on Google.
AA is a dental hygienist, Jakobsze confirmed. After she posted her evaluate, the choice says he submitted a grievance to her skilled faculty alleging fraud and “gender-based harassment,” contacted her employer to say she had psychological well being points and referred to as the RCMP to accuse her of hate crimes.
“He was relentless in his marketing campaign in opposition to her, forcing her to reply to a grievance to her regulator, and forcing her to endure the embarrassment of getting her psychological well being questioned in communications to her employer,” the penalty determination says.
Jakobsze’s grievance was dismissed by the School of Dental Hygienists of B.C., which discovered that the matter was “basically a enterprise dispute” and never associated to AA’s work, in response to a abstract of the findings posted by the Well being Professions Assessment Board. The board additionally rejected Jakobsze’s software for a evaluate as a result of it wasn’t filed inside the required time restrict.
As soon as the faculty’s inquiry committee had launched its investigation into Jakobsze’s actions, he exchanged quite a lot of emails with employees that went “far past a legit problem” to their actions, the panel discovered.
Amongst a raft of different incendiary remarks to varsity employees recounted in faculty paperwork, Jakobsze referred to as the director of inquiry and self-discipline “somebody with a psychological delay.”
In a November 2020 e-mail to the identical official, he wrote, “I don’t know who touched you whenever you have been 12 or what boy didn’t such as you in highschool, however it isn’t my fault that somebody damage you beforehand in life.”
He went on to accuse her of “a vendetta in opposition to me” and recommended she was “harassing me and my household to fit your personal sexist motives.”
In a message to the faculty’s lawyer, Jakobsze referred to as the investigation course of a “kangaroo court docket,” and advised them “You generally is a legal if you would like. Simply ask your self if it’s value it.”
Within the penalty determination, the panel notes that Jakobsze has obtained quite a lot of warnings from the faculty about his conduct through the years.
The school wrote him a warning letter in 2016 after he didn’t acquire knowledgeable consent from a feminine affected person. In 2017, he was suggested to take remedial lessons after some “inappropriate and unprofessional communications” with WorkSafeBC employees.
Then in 2018, Jakobsze obtained one other warning about “sexual content material” in his communications with a feminine affected person, the choice says.