An Ontario doctor has had his medical licence revoked after admitting to harassing multiple young girls in Toronto’s east end as well as public masturbation, according to the province’s medical discipline tribunal.
According to court documents obtained by Global News, Dr. Armen Parajian, a former thoracic surgeon, pleaded guilty in 2021 to harassing 13 victims, 12 of whom were girls between the ages of 10 and 15, by repeatedly following them in his Jeep Wrangler over a six-month period.
In a separate incident, he was seen masturbating in the front passenger seat of his parked Jeep with the windows open, just as two young girls approached.
The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal accepted a joint submission from Parajian and the regulatory college, ordering the immediate revocation of his medical licence, a formal reprimand, and $6,000 in costs.
In its decision released on May 7, the panel wrote that “the publicity around these incidents has diminished the public’s confidence that any physician they visit will care for them and they will be safe in their vulnerable relationships with them.”
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The incidents took place between November 2020 and May 2021 in the east-end Toronto neighbourhood.
The ruling also says Parajian drove slowly near groups of girls, sometimes stopping without cause, and appeared to record or watch them using his phone.
According to the release, there were also multiple reports of a man in a white Jeep behaving suspiciously around children during that time.
Community warnings had been circulating since mid-2019, spreading through local schools, on social media and among concerned parents, eventually prompting police investigations and public safety alerts.
Nine days before his arrest, Parajian parked his Jeep on a residential street during daylight and moved into the passenger seat, where he exposed himself and began masturbating.
A woman living across the street witnessed the act and saw two 13-year-old girls walking directly toward the vehicle. She rushed outside and confronted Parajian, who denied wrongdoing and fled the scene.
He did not know any of the victims.
As part of a plea deal, Parajian was convicted of one count of criminal harassment in December 2021 and sentenced to three years’ probation.
At the discipline hearing, victim impact statements revealed the lasting psychological harm the incidents caused. One woman described feeling “anxious and skeptical” about doctors in general when seeking care for her children.
“I used to have a certain level of trust and respect for that physician simply because they were a medical professional,” she wrote. “Now, that pre-established trust is gone.”
“I shouldn’t have to feel this way. I should be able to trust and respect medical professionals and have faith that they will do what’s best for my children, but unfortunately, I can’t.”
In a second victim impact statement, parents wrote about how their daughter has spent the last two and a half years looking over her shoulder when she is out in the community and “always on high alert.”
At the time the statement was written, their daughter ran into Parajian periodically, and they described how this reignited her trauma. He has since moved out of the area.
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