Allan Beitel was a Canadian psychiatrist and anti-transgender activist. Beitel worked at Toronto’s notoriously anti-trans Clarke Institute and contributed a chapter to a 1985 anti-trans book edited by Betty Steiner.
Background
Allan B. Beitel was born in 1946 or 1947 and grew up in the Montreal area. Beitel graduated from Outremont High School in 1963. After earning a medical degree at McGill University in 1976, Beitel earned a doctorate from University of Toronto in 1981, with a dissertation on “gender identity disturbance.” Beitel also attended the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis. Beitel was affiliated with the Child and Family Studies Centre at the Clarke Institute.
According to a summary of a 2006 child support case, Beitel was married to a child psychologist and had two children. In December 1999 Allan “made a proposal of bankruptcy,” but “Allan did not establish his total disability. […] The last full year that Allan worked was 2002.” Allan Beitel sought self-representation: “Allan attempted to show that [Beitel’s ex-spouse] was involved in the timing of his arrest and in having him re-arrested for breaches of his recognizance, so that he would be unable to properly address the issues in this litigation.”
2003 arrest
In 2003, Beitel was arrested and a computer in Beitel’s possession was seized by the Peel Regional police force. The computer in question had been stolen from a local electronics store, and police discovered child sexual abuse material on it. On August 19, 2006, the Toronto Star reported:
“Hundreds of patients of an Ontario psychiatrist charged with possession of child pornography are unaware that confidential records containing their most intimate thoughts have been in the possession of the Peel Regional police force for the past three years.
Dr. Allan Beitel says the confidential records, stored on the hard drive of a computer seized by the police, include detailed notes on all of the psychoanalysis sessions he conducted at his Hamilton office between about 1994 and 2004. They are also said to include details relating to patients who did not require psychoanalysis or psychotherapy for their problems and contact information, including names and addresses, for all of his patients, including those from a previous 10-year practice in Toronto.
Beitel is now awaiting trial on charges including possession of a stolen laptop computer and possession of child pornography that police allege was stored on the computer’s hard drive. Staff Sgt. Doug Grozier, a spokesperson for the Peel force, said he is unable to respond to Beitel’s allegations because of a publication ban.”
2004 theft of communications charges
In May 2004, Beitel was charged with stealing a neighbour’s internet. Beitel was charged with two counts of theft of telecommunications, two counts of breaching bail conditions, and unauthorized use of a computer. Police accused Beitel of accessing the neighbor’s wireless internet connection to conceal internet activity. As part of Beitel’s previous bail conditions, Beitel was barred from using the internet. Peel police Detective Kelly Kippen said that investigators discovered Beitel was hacking into the neighbor’s wireless Internet service with a laptop. The computer was seized.
2008 incarceration
In June 2009, Steve Buist of the Hamilton Spectator reported that several charges against Beitel were stayed by the Crown, including accessing and possessing child pornography, possession of stolen property, and two counts of failing to comply. The Crown determined that Beitel was unlikely to spend any more time in prison than time already served if convicted. Buist also reported that Beitel “spent a number of months in custody last year related to other charges.” A charge of sexual assault was withdrawn after the victim moved out of the country and did not plan to attend the trial. Other charges remained in place, including “perjury, fraud under $5,000, two counts of theft under $5,000 and six counts of fail to comply with a recognizance.”
2011 professional misconduct hearing
In 2011, the discipline committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario held a professional misconduct hearing againist Beitel. Beitel denied the allegations of sexually abusing a patient, named “Mr. X” in the hearing. “Mr. X” alleged that during a consultation with Beitel at Beitel’s residence in August 2009, “Beitel asked him to drop his trousers and expose his genitals” after “Beitel questioned him specifically about sexual preferences and practices with his girlfriend, ‘what kind of things we would do, what kind of things we would discuss.'” After about 45 minutes, “Beitel asked him to stand up, move to stand in front of him, and turn first to the left and then to the right. He complied. Dr. Beitel then asked him to come and stand right in front of where he was sitting, to pull his pants down and to ‘let me see it.’ He asked, ‘See what?’ Dr. Beitel said, ‘Your cock.’ (On some other occasions, Mr. X indicated that Dr. Beitel had said, ‘Your thing.’)”
After three days of testimony, the discipline committee concluded about “Mr. X” that they “believed his testimony and did not accept as truth the testimony of Dr. Beitel.” The committee ordered a two-month suspension for Beitel, ordered Beitel to pay over $30,000, and set several conditions for Beitel to operate a home office in the future. They also issued a ban on publishing anything that might identify “Mr. X.”
On February 13, 2013, the Divisional Court overturned the discipline committee’s decision and returned the matter for rehearing, finding “fundamental flaws.”
Beitel died on April 20, 2014 in Toronto. Following a funeral at Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel, Beitel was interred at Pardes Chaim Cemetery. The death announcement requested making memorial donations to CAMH.
Anti-trans activism
Beitel’s 1981 dissertation on “gender identity disturbance” was based on psychoanalysis and looked at the “mother-child relationship.”
Beitel’s 1985 book chapter theorizes about etiology and presents the case of an adolescent “who manifested a progression in his symptoms from fetishism to transvestism and finally to fears of transsexualism.” Beitel presents the “primary transsexual” and “secondary transsexual” taxonomy and suggests that the difference between a “secondary transsexual” and a “transvestite” is the presence of stress caused by family dynamics.
References
Obituary (April 24, 2014). Allan Beitel. Montreal Gazette https://montrealgazette.remembering.ca/obituary/allan-beitel-1065894670
Obituary (2014). Allan Beitel. Legacy.com https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/allan-beitel-obituary?pid=170775246
Fong, Lisa C. (September 3, 2013). Credibility, and evidence bearing on credibility, in discipline hearings. Ng Ariss Fong, Lawyers https://www.ngariss.com/our-professional-conduct-posts/credibility-and-evidence-bearing-on-credibility-in-discipline-hearings/
Court of Ontario, Superior Court of Justice, Divisional Court (June 14, 2013). College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Beitel, 2013 ONSC 1599 https://ca.vlex.com/vid/college-of-physicians-v-681044429
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (November 4, 2011). Notice of Publication Ban. https://www.psychsearch.net/psychs/country/canada/11042011.pdf
- “On February 13, 2013, the Divisional Court overturned the Discipline Committee’s decision and returned the matter for rehearing. See College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Beitel, 2013 ONSC 1599.”
Court of Ontario, Superior Court of Justice, Divisional Court (June 17, 2009). College of Physicians and Surgeons (Ont.) et al. v. Metcalf et al., (2009) 256 O.A.C. 35 (DC). https://ca.vlex.com/vid/college-of-physicians-v-681464317
“Sickmind Fraud” (June 10, 2009). Update: The Prosecution of Psychiatrist Dr. Alan Beitel [sic]. PsychWatch https://psychwatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/update-prosecution-of-psychiatrist-dr.html
Buist, Steve (June 5, 2009). Child porn case against MD won’t proceed. Hamilton Spectator https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/child-porn-case-against-md-wont-proceed/article_40f89e0d-770e-5218-933c-a3dbd056b7e2.html
Court of Ontario, Superior Court of Justice, Divisional Court (August 13, 2008). Beitel v. College of Physicians and Surgeons (Ont.) et al. , 240 O.A.C. 195 (DC). https://ca.vlex.com/vid/beitel-v-college-of-680569117
Levy, Harold (August 19, 2006). PsyÂchiÂatric paÂtients’ priÂvacy breach feared. Toronto Star original url http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/%20Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1155937810639&call_pageid=968350130169%20&col=969483202845 available for purchase here https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20060819/281973193127389?srsltid=AfmBOopq4dk-SljVxIMTXP4JgQSqvXlb-Ldl3Uy_OBEO4CxQzAqYjdOQ
Court of Ontario (2006). Beitel v. Beitel, 2006 CanLII 60944 (ON S.C.) via http://www.ottawamenscentre.com/roscoe/20090103_selfrepfam_on.htm [archive]
Akin, David (May 23, 2004). One more time — Internet Theft from a Wireless Connectiion [sic]. David Akin http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/5/23/75047.html [archive]
- “Psychiatrist faces Internet theft charges A Burlington psychiatrist accused of possessing child pornography and banned from the Web has been charged with stealing a neighbour’s Internet. Dr. Allan Beitel, 57, was charged Wednesday with two counts of theft of telecommunications, two counts of breaching his bail conditions, and unauthorized use of a computer. Police accuse Beitel of accessing his neighbour’s wireless Internet connection to conceal his Internet activity. He remains in custody awaiting a bail hearing. Beitel faces charges of possessing child porn and stolen property from 2003 for allegedly stealing a laptop computer. He was charged in January with possession of stolen property, fraud, personation and breach of recognizance. Beitel was barred from using the Internet as part of his bail conditions. Peel police Detective Kelly Kippen said yesterday that investigators discovered Beitel was hacking into his neighbour’s wireless Internet service with a laptop. The computer has been seized. —[snipped]— Beitel remains in custody awaiting a bail hearing tomorrow at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton.”
Akin, David (November 23, 2003). A new crime in Canada. http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2003/11/23/6793.html
- “Toronto police arrested a man this week and laid what is believed to be the first-ever charge of “Theft of Telecommunications”. The case involves accusations of child porn and Wi-Fi. We led our national newscast with this item on Friday night and yet, so far as I can tell, no other major media outlet picked this up and it received only cursory treatment in The Toronto Star and from The Canadian Press.”
- Toronto Police press release: http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/release.php?id=4732 [“removed or expired”]
- Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1069415016955&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968705899037
- Canadian Press: http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2003/11/22/264890.html
- CTV News piece on “war driving” (does not mention Beitel): http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1069439746264_64848946/?hub=CTVNewsAt11
“Sickmind Fraud” (July 9, 2003). Psych Charged with Possession of Child Pornography. PsychWatch https://psychwatch.blogspot.com/2003/07/psych-charged-with-possession-of-child.html
Staff report (July 9, 2003). Child Porn Found in Computer Stolen from Electronics Store. Mississauga News http://www.mississauganews.com/mi/peelpolice/story/1187213p-1415329c.html cited by Canadians Addressing Sexual Exploitation http://www.c-a-s-e.net/2003%20News%20Articles/Psychiatrist%20Charged%20with%20Child%20Porn.htm [archive]
Selected publications by Beitel
Beitel, A. (1985). The Spectrum of Gender Identity Disturbances. In: Steiner, B.W. (eds) Gender Dysphoria. Perspectives in Sexuality. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4784-2_6
Beitel, A (1981). A conceptual model of gender identity disturbance: The mother—child relationship. Dissertation for the Diploma in Child Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
Resources
Allan Beitel (allanbeitelmd.info) [archive]
- d/b/a Beitel Medicine Professional Corporation Ontario Corporation Number 002171400 [defaulted in 2015]
Facebook (facebook.com)
http://www.clarke-inst.on.ca/