SickKids doctor kept medical licence for six months after police probe began

TORONTO · Police began investigating a SickKids doctor in January for allegedly uploading a video depicting child sexual abuse on the Toronto hospital's network. It took six months for his medical licence to be suspended, CBC News has learned. Dr. Dilan Dissanayake, a staff rheumatologist, was placed on leave on Jan. 28, the day officers searched his office. His medical licence was not suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario until July, when he was charged with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

According to Toronto police court filings, officers began investigating Dissanayake on Jan. 20 after receiving a tip that suspected child sexual abuse material was uploaded to his personal Dropbox account from an IP address at the Hospital for Sick Children. Police searched his home and office the following week. The tip, forwarded via the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, alleged a file was uploaded to his account on Jan. 19.

Unproven affidavits filed by police state the file name included the acronym "pthc," which stands for pre-teen hardcore. A detective who reviewed the five-minute video said it shows a female child about 12 to 15 years old, fully nude, being sexually assaulted by an adult man. Police seized seven electronic devices from Dissanayake's home and two computers from his office in the January searches. A later search warrant application stated that seven more "thumbcache" images constituting child sexual abuse material were found in an initial examination of a desktop computer seized from his office. This six-month gap before his licence was suspended troubles Dr. Shannon Ruzycki, a professor at the University of Calgary's medical school. "If the CPSO hadn't restricted his licence, he could've still been [practising medicine], even if not at the hospital itself," she said. Ruzycki, who led a recent study on physician sexual misconduct, said regulators should err on the side of suspending medical licences when serious allegations arise to protect vulnerable patients.

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"I do think when it comes down to sex- and gender-based violence, crimes that involve children, voyeurism, I think there are certain cases where we have to overreact," said Ruzycki.

Ruzycki said the alleged behaviour is "repulsive," especially for someone working at a children's hospital. "That feels worse than if it was just at home," she said. "Not only are you a pediatrician, but you were doing that at work, at work with vulnerable, sick, unwell children." She said such allegations can hurt families' trust in the medical system even if the activity did not cross into clinical practice. Material like the video described by police is "depressingly common," said Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. The incidence of child sexual abuse material access and possession reported to Canadian police has doubled in the past decade, according to Statistics Canada data. Canada's share of international online tips has also spiked, from about 37,000 of 17 million reports in 2019 to 129,000 of 23 million in 2025.

"We are at the point now where this needs to be an all-hands-on-deck approach," said St. Germain. "Everybody, including the tech companies, need to be proactively doing things to keep CSAEM off of their platforms."

In a statement to CBC News, SickKids confirmed Dissanayake was placed on leave on Jan. 28. "We understand the trust placed in SickKids as a pediatric hospital and the safety of patients, families and staff is paramount. The allegations are deeply disturbing and do not reflect SickKids' values," a spokesperson wrote. After a second SickKids employee was arrested in August on unrelated child sex crime charges, the hospital hired KPMG to conduct an external review and is exploring future programming provided by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Asked about Dissanayake's case, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario said it is independently investigating the pediatrician but would not comment further, citing confidentiality provisions. Neither Dissanayake nor the college answered CBC's question as to whether he practised medicine in any other context after the investigation began. Toronto police told CBC that investigators have found no evidence the alleged material is connected to Dissanayake’s medical practice, but the investigation is ongoing. The allegations against Dissanayake have not been tested in court.

With files from CBC News