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WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
A suspended physician who was providing public health services in northern Saskatchewan and psychotherapy in Ontario is now facing a total of 71 criminal charges after police laid 28 new counts on Tuesday, including allegations coinciding with his time as a medical student in Alberta.
Toronto police now accuse David Edward-Ooi Poon of having committed sex crimes going back as far as 2009, the year he began studying at the University of Alberta’s medical school.
The 28 newly alleged offences comprise:
- Seven counts of sexual assault between 2009 and 2024.
- Fifteen counts of voyeurism between 2009 and 2025.
- Three counts of sexual interference for allegedly sexually touching three minors under age 16 on a single day in September 2024, in Vaughan, Ont.
- One additional count each of possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material “in the form of images and videos” sometime between 2009 and 2017.
- One count of mischief, dated sometime between June 2022 and July 2023, in which Poon is alleged to have “willfully interfere[d]” with a female person’s use of her “underwear and bathing suit.”
Neither these charges nor earlier ones from November and December have been tested or proven in court.
A handful of the new charges indicate an eight-year span when the alleged incidents might have taken place, between January 2009 and May 2017. Three of those counts simply say the alleged offences took place somewhere in Canada, with no greater detail.
Detectives also appear to have identified at least 13 new potential victims in the amended charge sheet, where they are listed by initials. Previously, almost all of the charges against Poon listed “an unknown person” or “a person” as the alleged victims.
Criminal lawyer David Butt, a former sex-crimes prosecutor, says it’s important to keep the legal presumption of innocence front of mind when confronted with allegations of this magnitude.
“We cannot let the volume and the moral repugnance that any reasonable person would feel at the breadth and nature of the allegations to in any way distract us from the presumption of innocence,” he told CBC News.
Butt said that in a hypothetical scenario where a person is convicted of all of the “offending behaviours” in the allegations, that would constitute a “very serious” and “highly active sexual predator.”
“A dangerous offender designation and indeterminate custody would be a very realistic possibility.”
Neither Poon nor his lawyers have responded to multiple past requests for comment from CBC News. His lawyers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the new charges sent Thursday afternoon.
Charges extend to Alberta, Saskatchewan
The new charges allege that Poon sexually assaulted a specific person twice in Edmonton in 2012. He was a medical student at the University of Alberta at the time.
The new charges now allege Poon committed voyeurism in April 2025 against a specific person in Saskatchewan. At the time, Poon was working for Northern Medical Services, an initiative of the University of Saskatchewan’s college of medicine, as a medical officer of health.
On a now-inactive LinkedIn page, Poon described his work as focusing on “communicable diseases, chronic diseases, mental health and addictions” for the northern Saskatchewan region, which is 85 per cent Indigenous.
One of those Saskatchewan voyeurism charges appears to replace an initial charge in December that was laid for an offence allegedly committed on the same day in Wainfleet, Ont. That charge is no longer mentioned in the updated charge sheet.
There is no mention in the list of criminal allegations against Poon that any of the charges relate to his medical practice, and neither the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) nor the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan have suggested that.
Bryan Salte, senior legal counsel with the Saskatchewan college, said Poon’s medical practice in that province was conducted virtually and that the college has already taken the strongest measures it can against him while his charges are still pending: suspending his licence. Salte said if Poon is convicted on any counts, the college could move to revoke his licence.
Asked if it is aware of the new charges and has any knowledge of whether the allegations relate to his medical practice, the CPSO told CBC News that Poon’s suspension “remains in effect” but cannot comment on any investigative steps it is taking due to confidentiality requirements.
‘Longer’ case expected
Butt said these charges may take some time to work their way through the courts because of the scope of the alleged crimes and the complexity of the investigation.
“This is not a case where I would say it’s going to go to trial any time really soon,” he said. “I would expect that this is going to be a longer rather than a shorter case.”
A Canadian doctor, often in the news promoting family reunification during COVID-19 restrictions, is in pre-trial jail for alleged sex crimes, in part due to a tip from Google, court documents show. David Edward-Ooi Poon faces 43 counts, including making child pornography, sexual assault, and drugging someone to facilitate sexual assault.
According to unproven allegations in a sworn court statement filed by police to get a search warrant for Poon’s home and electronics, a tip from U.S. tech giant Google appears to have sparked the initial investigation into Poon.
The statement alleges that Google sent alerts last August and September flagging 11 images suspected to be child sexual abuse material that had been uploaded to a Google Drive account registered with Poon’s name, birthdate, phone number and email address.
Poon remains in custody and is expected to appear in a Toronto court via video on Friday afternoon. At his last court appearance, his lawyers said they were waiting for further evidence to be disclosed from the Crown before deciding whether to apply for bail.
