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“Price under more heat for sexual harassment than anyone since Merino and gives a final with 69 questions,” reads the Facebook post. “What a boss.”
That’s what one Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen wrote this past spring. He’s referring to current dentistry professor Richard Price, and former Dalhousie professor Arturo Merino. They’re two of four dentistry faculty members named in the misogynistic Facebook group that’s rocked the university.
Merino was employed by Dalhousie at least until July of 2012 as a professor of endodontics, while also working in the school’s dental clinic. He now splits his time between a few different clinics in Spain’s Badajoz province. After multiple phone calls, The Coast was finally able to reach Merino by email and ask him whether he had been investigated for sexual harassment and why he no longer was teaching at Dalhousie. We’ve received no
reply.
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Another current Dalhousie dentistry instructor mentioned in the group is Wayne Garland. The assistant professor is named in a post showing a photo of a woman and a recommendation to “bang until stress is relieved or unconscious.” The post’s author claims that’s “Garland’s modified method” of stress relief.
“I don’t think he’ll be calling you back,” said the woman who answered the phone when The Coast tried calling Garland’s office line. “Thanks for phoning,” she added before hanging up.
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One person who did return our phone calls was Jon Bruhm. The alumni officer for the faculty of dentistry is also a former journalist and was a writer for The Coast from 2002 to 2006. When contacted, Bruhm hadn’t been informed by Dalhousie he was mentioned in the Facebook group.
“My goodness, that’s the first I’m hearing about it,” he says.
Bruhm’s name only comes up when one of the “gentlemen” praises him for having a “hot” assistant and ponders inducting him into their group. Another states Bruhm says “gentlemanly things” sometimes.
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Categorically, Bruhm says he’s had no sexual harassment or code of conduct complaints made against him. He also says he isn’t aware of any complaints against any other dentistry faculty members.
“I have no idea,” Bruhm says, when asked why he thinks the “gentlemen” singled him out. “I just work here.”
The posts mentioning Merino, Price, Garland and Bruhm all date from before this summer, when a male dentistry professor showed a video of bikini-clad women to “wake up” the men in his class. The Coast doesn’t know the identity of that instructor.
Brian Leadbetter, Dalhousie’s director of communications, has refused to comment on any of the specific allegations about faculty members. In December, he claimed not to be aware of any faculty sexual harassment complaints or investigations in the dentistry school during the past nine months he’s held his job. Specific questions about Richard Price and Arturo Merino were put to Leadbetter on January 9.
No one would label the ramblings made within the controversial Facebook group as mature. But given the public outrage about the content—and the severity of some of the accusations—we wanted to offer Dalhousie and the instructors involved every opportunity to defend themselves. Save Bruhm’s solitary and emphatic denial, everyone else has refused to comment.
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This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2015.
I’m more interested in hearing why Dalhousie is allowing Bono to practice dentistry with his gammy hand?
If you are going to name staff who may have done nothing wrong and are just caught up in the misogynistic hatefest that was this facebook group by chance (and some who may also be misogynist dirt bags) then why are you still protecting the names of the people who chose to be members of this group and chose to single out classmates and chose to be behave like human garbage?
If you’re going to keep the names of the actual offenders secret then why are you naming people who have done nothing wrong?
The horse is dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt
By continuing to share these posts made by the group, you continue to re-victimize those directly or indirectly identified. “Bruhm’s name only comes up when one of the “gentlemen” praises him for having a “hot” assistant and ponders inducting him into their group.” Do you not think that perhaps the assistant mentioned in these posts feels disgust and perhaps the continued highlight of said post is both scarring and unnecessary? Enough is enough. Think about the victims, the “gentlemen” are not the only ones you are highlighting by your relentless attacks.
Dear Jacob Boon,
This is the picture that was shown by one of the professors you are falsely accusing in this sensationalized article:
https://berrymii.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/stress-kit.jpg
Please don’t confuse what was said by ‘the gentlemen’ , with what was actually shown by the professor, as they were ‘modifying’ the professor’s method of stress relief. Suggesting that these professors are anything but professional is out of the scope of the current issue, and is sensationalist journalism. Using their names, and directly targeting them based off of a few comments said by the ‘gentlemen’ makes for a poor case on your part.
Regards,
A female.
What comes around.. Goes around. Dalhousie dentistry your dirty laundry hang out and exposed. Profs named student about to lose their future. Justice served ironically by your boys and girls. Couldn’t be satisfied more than this.
Coast, you really need to check your sources before you slander a person. Dr Price has an enormous amount of integrity and is one of the most respected faculty members, Because he has earned it. Some idiot on this Facebook page sees everything through a lens of violence and sex…. it does not men you should give him credence. Price is one of the hardest workers. He may not have the best bedside manner and speaks frankly but it is preposterous to think he would even come close to sexual harassment. Now I am really pissed!
Defend themselves?! Its their word against yours. Who wrote this article?!
Jacob Boon, you better have a good lawyer. This man you mention has a huge reputation in the dental community. International. I really feel sorry for you. If it were true you might be on to something but its not and people would line up to prove you wrong.
This is exactly what I expect from the coast these days. Garbage journalism. Your name means nothing anymore, you’re a joke. Someone should dig up some dirt on the yuppies that run this rag and shove it down their throats. FFS, this is like fox news for the ultra-P.C. cumquat. And I vote Green…
I worked at dentistry for 8 years and I’m appalled that Dr Garland or Jon would even be mentioned… They are lovely people and always showed me, a female employee, great respect and encouragement. I don’t know the other faculty mentioned in this article to say much of their character, but never had I been treated badly by any male faculty or staff. I feel so bad because there was so much pride in that faculty; our Dean worked so hard for his “family”… And now its just been put through the mud over these assholes. 🙁
No, wait, The Coast is making an allegation of sexual harrasment against a professor based on a student making an allegation of sexual harrasment? Wow. The Coast has no followup or corroborating evidence to support this claim? Go back and watch All the Presidents Men, Jacob.
If The Coast ever called me for an interview I wouldn’t have to say to them either.
Could this be the end of The Coast?
This mudslinging story is based upon some selected Facebook posts by a bunch of misogynistic idiots. When you asked Dalhousie to comment, because they refused, you assumed guilt and proceeded to post your trashy story and pointed your journalistic finger at four Dalhousie profs. I agree with ‘ragshag’, you WILL need to find yourself a good lawyer!
I don’t know if a lawyer is needed, really. Jacob Boon is quoting someone making a claim. Whether that claim has any bearing on reality is between the professor and the university, this is no different than elementary schoolyard rumor mongering among the kids in the schoolyard who think Miss Perch might be the girlfriend of Mr. Logan for no reason other than, well, they’re children and children like to play make believe.
This is a pathetic attempt at mudslinging by an incompetent journalist who hides behind the fact that he is just reporting what was written in the juvenile Facebook posts, eg. Bruhm says “gentlemanly things” sometimes, and “Garland’s modified method” of stress relief is to “bang until stress is relieved or unconscious.”
By publicly naming these four Dalhousie professors he has defamed them and also made them the only named ‘victims’ of this Facebook group.
Shame on you for naming the victims and not naming the authors of the Facebook group.
This inept journalist is not very good at checking his facts:
1. One reader was able to post where Garland’s misquote came from.
https://berrymii.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/stress-kit.jpg
2. The so called video of ‘bikini-clad women’ was actually an Air New Zealand Safety video that was trying to convey an important safety message to its passengers. (see the original CBC story)
http://www.airnewzealand.com/best-price-to-the-cook-islands
Check your facts before writing a story. No comment does not equal guilt!!!!!!
I’m waiting for this article coming back with greater news. http://jbdentalcare.com