Gaetan Barrette says he is not a bully, despite the incidents and the remarks he is accused of while working as a radiologist at a Montreal hospital..
La Presse reported on Thursday a series of threats and insults the health minister made to fellow doctors while working at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in 2009.
The opposition at the National Assembly has accuses him of settling his accounts now that he is health minister by abolishing their field of expertise, transfering echocardiogram duties to cardiologists.
The minister did not deny the story, nor the numerous incidents, but attributed them to a context of tension on both sides.
He argued he had to make up for the shortcomings of his former colleagues.
In one alleged comment to a fellow doctor, Barrette said he was stabbing him in the face because the colleague stabbed him in the back. Barrette said “these were Christmas dinner conversations. They are metaphors.”
PQ MNA Agnes Maltais accused Barrette of depriving thousands of patients of a service simply to get "personal revenge."
Barrette maintained on Thursday he never intimidated anyone, nor has anyone intimidated him. He insinuated during a press briefing he could have a lot more to say about his former colleagues, but he refused to elaborate.