Receptionist says doctor harassed her

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2017 (2352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The moment Amanda Seniuk saw the headlines about the first sexual-assault charge against a Winnipeg doctor who she says traumatized her as well, she was on the phone to police.

Seniuk went public Thursday with her account of alleged sexual harassment by Amir Houshang Mazhariravesh, 51 — known professionally as Dr. Amir Ravesh — saying the way two local medical clinics handled her complaints is part of the problem.

“The way I look at it is, if I can help… Look at the 19-year-old who came forward, look at how many other women came forward. That bravery? That’s huge. I don’t think they realize how huge it is. You have to speak up. Nothing is ever going to get done if you don’t,” Seniuk said.

In October, Winnipeg police charged Ravesh with sexual assault involving a 19-year-old female patient, and called for any potential victims to step forward. In November, police added numerous sexual-assault charges, involving eight other women.

Winnipeg police confirmed Seniuk’s complaint, and said they didn’t include her case among the charges but her information helped investigators.

Seniuk said her allegations are also the focus of a pending investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. After the first criminal charge was laid, records show the licensing body for doctors in the province removed Ravesh from the register, meaning he is suspended from practicing medicine in Manitoba.

Meanwhile, the 31-year-old said she’s still living with the trauma and blames part of it on how the clinics handled her complaints.

“I work in places where there are people now, where there’s a constant flow. I will not put myself in a situation where I’m left alone,” she told the Free Press. “It’s made me lose all trust and hope, especially in male doctors.”

In early 2013, Seniuk was working as a receptionist at the You! Medical Centre (359 Johnson Ave. W.) when Ravesh joined the practice.

Within a few weeks, she said the doctor started pestering her for massages. She kept turning him down, and complained to management. “The manager was very aware of it. I told him this has to stop. I can’t work like this. It literally makes you feel very small when you’re put in a position where this is very persistent.”

A week later, the inappropriate requests stopped. “I figured (the manager) had talked to him,” she said.

Soon after, Ravesh left You! and joined the Prana Family Medical Clinic (208 Regent Ave. W.). Ravesh was the only doctor on staff at You!, so his departure left Seniuk without a full-time job. She was also pregnant at the time.

“I was in a position where not too many people hired pregnant people, right? It was a full-time job and I had a large family and (work) was something I required,” she said. Seniuk was also going through a divorce.

In 2013, she was a single mom, so when Ravesh offered her a full-time job at the Prana clinic, Seniuk said she put her misgivings aside out of financial necessity.

“I was desperate for the hours and there were other people there (at the second clinic). Another receptionist, a lab tech, a pharmacist. I didn’t feel there was a risk because it wasn’t one-on-one,” she said.

Seniuk now sees it as “the biggest mistake” of her life. She was to start an hour before the clinic opened each day, and was given shifts when other staff weren’t present.

“On Saturday, it was only me and Dr. Ravesh,” she said, adding Ravesh soon started asking for massages again. “He said, ‘I’m the one who got you this job.’ He was taunting me, intimidating me… There was a long time where I said no. He was persisting.”

She said she finally gave in and agreed to give him a lower-leg massage.

“I felt if it didn’t, I was going to lose my job. I had no alternative. I figured if I gave him this stupid leg massage, he would leave me alone. That was a big mistake,” Seniuk said.

“It escalated very fast. He grabbed my hands and he tried to put them on his groin area… I walked out of that situation.”

She said she went to the manager to report the incident and the clinic’s response was to cut her hours.

Seniuk soon left on maternity leave. Days before she was due to return to work, she said the clinic sent her an email saying it no longer had a job for her.

It was only after the first criminal charges were made public, Seniuk said, when she had moved forward with a complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, that its officials told her neither clinic had submitted a record of her previous complaints.

Seniuk said she later filed a ­complaint with the province’s labour board against one of the clinics. She got a $900 settlement.

You! offered the Free Press the same email response it gave other media Thursday.

Manager Andrew Chubey confirmed there had been a complaint against Ravesh.

“I raised the concern with Dr. Ravesh and he provided an answer that I considered to be satisfactory at the time,” Chubey wrote. “To my knowledge, that was the sole concern… prior to the criminal investigation reported in the media.”

Prana changed hands in 2016. Former manager Davood Danaee told the Free Press by phone there had been a complaint but he wasn’t free to discuss it, due to confidentiality concerns.

The Free Press tried to reach Ravesh through his lawyer, Martin Minuk, but he did not respond.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca