A Winnipeg chiropractor, who pleaded guilty to voyeurism for recording patients with hidden cameras in what a judge called a “very misguided attempt” to catch potential theft, has been handed a conditional discharge.
Robert Stitt, 67, was charged with eight counts of voyeurism in 2024 after Winnipeg police searched his clinic, Natural Wellness Chiropractic Centre on Portage Avenue, and seized electronics and cameras that were hidden in ceiling tiles.
He pleaded guilty to one of the charges in October, while the others were stayed.
Dr. Robert Stitt
He was found to have recorded videos of eight patients, who were in states of undress, via a camera hidden in one of the treatment rooms from late 2023 until early 2024.
Crown prosecutor Boyd McGill and Stitt’s lawyer, Richard Wolson, said Wednesday the recordings were not made for a sexual purpose. They jointly recommended Stitt be given the conditional discharge, which requires him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a year. Provincial court judge Timothy Killeen accepted the recommendation.
Killeen asked Wolson to explain further why the recordings were made.
Wolson said “incidents of theft” at Stitt’s practice prompted him to install cameras in the lobby and office rooms, as well as in an overflow treatment room in which he normally didn’t see patients. There were no cameras in the clinic’s main treatment rooms.
Investigators from the Manitoba Chiropractic Association, the regulatory body of the profession, had gone to Stitt’s clinic on Jan. 19, 2024, to probe an unrelated complaint from a former patient, said McGill, who was reading from an agreed statement of facts.
“During this visit, Stitt informed the MCA investigators that he had video footage of the incident being investigated, which he believed would exonerate him, and Stitt disclosed that he had multiple cameras in the office, including in a patient treatment room,” said McGill.
The regulatory body called in the Winnipeg Police Service. Officers investigated and seized evidence from the clinic, including several cameras that were disguised to look like sprinkler heads.
Police found recordings of eight patients, including one whose breasts were exposed in the video, while the others were in various states of undress.
The patients weren’t aware of of the cameras nor did they consent to being recorded, said McGill.
Killeen called voyeurism a serious matter.
“It’s serious because where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and I will say, in the office of a chiropractor or any of other professional where there might be some element of removing an article of clothing or changing into a different type of clothing, I think everyone reasonably should expect that they will be in a private situation,” said Killeen.
The judge pointed out surreptitious recording is typically done for a sexual purpose.
He said it appears “extraordinarily unlikely” that the cameras would have been detected if Stitt hadn’t alerted the regulatory investigators himself.
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“(That) strongly points to what was been agreed, which is that there was no sexual purpose behind this. It was rather an extraordinary mistake in judgment to allow patients to be put in that room,” Killeen said, calling it a “very misguided attempt to deal with potential theft events.”
Killeen said Stitt, who had been practising since 1990, violated his professional obligations in a “profound error of judgment.”
The association suspended Stitt from practising for about two years. Wolson said he expects Stitt will continue to face problems with the regulator.
Stitt apologized to the court.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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