The Dalhousie Dentistry Story: A Case for Proportionality, Professionalism, and the Promotion of Moral Character

Abstract

The fate of the senior male students at the heart of the crisis – fourth-year students one semester short of becoming professional dentists, with all the profession’s obligations and privileges – has been the subject of ferocious debate. What they have posted on social media is unquestionably reprehensible and indefensible. (“Who would you hate fuck”, they quipped about their own female colleagues, while casually considering which anaesthetic to use to sedate women to submit to sex). Indeed, they seemed impervious to the increasing conversation, perhaps even a semblance of a collective consciousness, about sexual violence against women that was (re)ignited on the heels of the Jian Ghomeshi scandal. And – more fundamentally – that the profession of dentistry presupposes a commitment to professional norms of conduct and public expectations, appears to have been completely lost on them. Following a domino of events, they have been suspended from clinical activities and classes, while the University proceeds with a formal review of the incident and a controversial process of restorative justice (a face-to-face mea culpa with the victims).