Should Denturists Board have acted against Gabriel Wortman if RCMP refused to ?

Any one of the many violent incidents that Gabriel Wortman perpetrated over the decades would have triggered a genuine response from the RCMP —— if only he had been poor and black or aboriginal or moslem or even if he had been francophone and catholic.

But Wortman was a white protestant millionaire businessman medical professional.

What could the unhappy victims of his violent intimidation, threats and actions have done as an alternative ?

The key might lie in the last word , two sentences back : professional.

Professionals are granted by legislatures a good deal of self regulating with the fond hope (delusion) that the professionals will actually regulate for the public good.

They regulate all right, with a stalinist fist - but only to protect their economic monopoly power.

Regulate for the public good - its never happened and never will.

Still the legislation that set up the Denturist’s Board, like all other boards set up to regulate other professions does contain a morals clause : a requirement that applicants to receive a denturist license in Nova Scotia (or to have it renewed) must be of good character.

Now if  I saw my family doctor on a lawn choking the life out of their spouse and then telling their own uncle, “don't you dare call the RCMP or I will shoot you just like the guy I killed in the States,” I could take my complaint to the doctors licensing board.

I could basically complain, appealing to their collective economic self interest,  that this sort of public activity tends lowers the reputation of all doctors —— and could they please require my doctor to join AA, take an anger management course and surrender all firearms.

They probably won’t do anything and if anything, tend to “lose“ your initial complaint, but if you document everything really well and send it by signed for registered mail, at least you know you tried.

You might even have gotten lucky : it could be that denturists of Nova Scotia had found Gabe a royal pain in the ass for decades (color me very surprised if they don’t) and were just dying for a complaint from the general public as an excuse to kick him to the pavement.

The good things about complaints of professional misconduct is that the burden of proof is much lower than what the RCMP know will be required in a court of law.

But there are further alternatives to the feckless mounties and the faint-hearted licensing boards.

FRANK MAGAZINE, for example : perhaps 50,000 Nova Scotians will be sad to tell you how a mere mention in Frank can make them a hot household word in their community for at least two weeks...