Court bans former chiropractor from treating patients

A Winnipeg man who continued to provide chiropractic services after his license was revoked has been banned from practicing until 2029 by a court.

Former chiropractor Peter Rutherford has agreed to stop practicing and retire in October 2024 after admitting to the Manitoba Chiropractors Association that he was guilty of misconduct related to improper record keeping.

The order, issued March 5 by Court of King’s Bench Justice Theodore Bock, bans Rutherford from practicing as a chiropractor until October 23, 2029 and from “improperly acting as a chiropractic practitioner.”

Rutherford had been practicing in Manitoba since 1992 and had been “involved in a number of incidents of professional misconduct” over the years, the association’s executive director, Dana Forster, said in a Feb. 19 statement. These include practicing without a license, failing to maintain liability insurance, fraudulent billing, and claiming to treat eye diseases, including macular degeneration.

In 2019, Rutherford was suspended for six months after he admitted to taking financial advantage of an elderly female patient.

“The prior pattern of professional misconduct demonstrates that Mr. Rutherford has a history of disregard for his regulatory agency,” Forster wrote in his statement. “Mr. Rutherford’s continued practice without a license puts people at risk.”

Rutherford did not appear in court to receive the Bucks order. A court affidavit says Rutherford told a union employee on the phone on Feb. 27 that he “is over it and (doesn’t care) you can do what you want.”

Rutherford said he is in the hospital after suffering a stroke and is not practicing.

The chiropractic association filed a lawsuit against Rutherford on February 19. Court documents show that insurance provider Blue Cross notified the association on Jan. 23 that Rutherford provided chiropractic services to two patients for $50 each.

Community workers conducted an online search and found that Rutherford operated a clinic on Court Avenue.

A staff member who called the clinic as a patient on January 29 and was told by a man who identified himself as Rutherford was taking new patients.

The union sent a letter to Rutherford the same day, telling him to “discontinue” practicing and holding himself out as a chiropractor.

Rutherford responded the next day, claiming he was not holding himself out as a chiropractor, referring chiropractic patients elsewhere and complying with the restrictions placed on him.

“Despite Mr. Rutherford’s claims, he has maintained himself as a chiropractor, and he continues to provide chiropractic services,” Sami Fator, the union’s organizing director, wrote in a statement.

The union hired a private investigator who visited the clinic on February 11 as a new patient. In a statement, the investigator said Rutherford told him he “just retired” but agreed to take him on as a new patient.

The investigator said Rutherford told him that he saw patients from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. most days, serving Hutterites from 10 colonies who visited the clinic and that he only billed private patients, not insurance companies.

The investigator said Rutherford told him “he doesn’t like his regulatory union and that the board is made up of people who don’t know what they’re doing.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Court reporter

Dean Pritchard is the court reporter free press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun Before joining free press In 2019. Read more about Dean.

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