By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

“You are innocent of these charges. You are free to go,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips told Dr. Brian Nadler of Dollard-des-Ormeaux last week as he was acquitted of four first-degree murder charges and four counts of criminal negligence causing death.

This high-profile murder case was about to start when the Crown declined to call any witnesses to testify on behalf of the prosecution or provide evidence. Nadler’s defense lawyer Brian Greenspan, who notably represented many high profile clients including Mike DaSilva, Justin Bieber and Naomi Campbell, told The Suburban that the primary expert witness in the case was not in fact an expert. “Without that witness, the Crown had no reasonable prospect of conviction,” he explained. Crown attorney Robin Flumerfelt told the court Tuesday that the prosecution was left with no reasonable prospect of a conviction following the decision to exclude its main witness. “For all practical purposes, these rulings have decided the case against the Crown,” Flumerfelt stated to the Court.

Nadler consistently maintained his innocence from the day of his arrest by Hawkesbury OPP officers at the Hawkesbury General Hospital in Ontario on March 25, 2021. Nadler was removed from his place of work and has spent the last three years facing severe criminal charges.

Nadler is a McGill University graduate who was licensed to practice medicine in Quebec, but never had. Post graduation, Dr. Nadler practiced medicine in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the United States before he became licensed to practice in Ontario in February 2020.

Nadler had pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment. The Crown has not made a decision on an appeal. The Crown can only appeal following an acquittal, not when charges are withdrawn or stayed. “Whether they appeal or not, 30 days will tell us,” Greenspan told The Suburban. “Their appeal would have to rely on the expert witness that was ruled to be inadmissible. “ Greenspan says that he is prepared to make the arguments necessary in the face of any appeal and has nine expert witnesses lined up. “We have five pathologists that are government employees, not retained by us including the Ontario chief pathologist, all who have ruled the cause of death to be due to COVID-19 in each case. We have two toxicologists that are prepared to testify that the drugs administered by Dr. Nadler were not the cause of death. We have two palliative care physicians who are prepared to testify that the drugs administered were within the appropriate range for palliative care patients. The Crown prosecutor had a hematologist that does not agree, but his opinion was ruled inadmissible.”

Greenspan says that since the publication ban was lifted on Tuesday that it is important for the families of the four deceased patients to know that the postmortem exams determined that they died of COVID-19 or had pre-existing conditions prior to catching the virus, a fact that was always maintained by Nadler as he professed his innocence. Following his acquittal, Nadler has launched civil action against the hospital.

“Each of the four deaths was the tragic result of the outbreak of the virulent Delta strain of Covid-19 at the Hawkesbury General Hospital in March 2021. It is also tragic that Dr. Nadler’s life and reputation have been clouded by the innuendo of suspicion surrounding these deaths for the past three years,” Greenspan said. n