WARNING: This story discusses child sexual abuse material and contains graphic details.
In January, police began investigating a SickKids doctor for allegedly uploading a video depicting child sexual abuse on the Toronto hospital’s network.
But it took six months for his medical licence to be suspended, CBC News has learned.
According to Toronto police court filings, officers began investigating Dr. Dilan Dissanayake on Jan. 20, after receiving a tip that suspected child sexual abuse and exploitation material (CSAEM) was uploaded to his personal Dropbox account and logged into with an IP address geolocated to the Hospital for Sick Children.
Police searched his home and office the following week.
In a statement to CBC News, SickKids confirmed that Dissanayake, a staff rheumatologist, was placed on leave on Jan. 28, the day officers searched his office in the SickKids research centre.
“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.
Dissanayake’s medical licence, however, wasn’t suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) until July, when he was charged with possessing and accessing CSAEM.
Neither Dissanayake nor CPSO answered CBC’s question as to whether he practised medicine in any other context after the investigation began.
This six-month gap 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.
The allegations against Dissanayake have not been tested in court.
‘Pre-teen hardcore’ video uploaded: ITOs
The Jan. 20 Dropbox tip was forwarded to Toronto police via the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a non-profit that receives tens of millions of tips a year from American tech companies, which are mandated to report suspected CSAEM.
CBC News has learned the tip alleged that a file with suspected CSAEM was uploaded to Dissanayake’s account in the middle of the afternoon of Jan. 19, according to information to obtain search warrants (ITOs) filed by Toronto police.
According to the unproven affidavits, the file name included the acronym “pthc,” which stands for pre-teen hardcore. The 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.
In this police application to obtain a search warrant, a Toronto detective describes a ‘pre-teen hardcore’ video that was allegedly uploaded to Dr. Dilan Dissanayake’s personal Dropbox account. (Craig Chivers/CBC)
Police seized seven electronic devices from Dissanayake’s home and two computers from his office in the January searches.
In a later ITO to seize a remaining work computer in late February, the detective attested that seven more “thumbcache” images constituting CSAEM were found in an initial examination of the desktop computer seized from his office.
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.”
Dr. Shannon Ruzycki, a professor at the University of Calgary’s medical school who researches physician sexual misconduct, says because of the position of trust held by doctors, the bar for maintaining a medical licence should be higher than the criminal standard of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’
She says that in the interest of protecting vulnerable patients, regulators should err on the side of suspending medical licences when serious allegations arise — even before charges are laid.
“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, who led a recent study on physician sexual misconduct.
Her research found that the vast majority (85 per cent) of victims of sex- and gender-based violence were women or girls, and nearly six per cent were children.
Asked about Dissanayake’s case and when it first learned of the police investigation, the CPSO said it is independently investigating the pediatrician but would not comment further, citing confidentiality provisions.
CSAEM ‘depressingly common’
Material like the video described by police depicting sexual activity involving children is “depressingly common,” said Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, a national organization dedicated to combating child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The incidence of CSAEM access and possession reported to Canadian police has doubled in the past decade, according to StatsCan data.
Canada’s share of international online CSAEM tips has likewise spiked. In 2019, approximately 37,000 of the 17 million reports to NCMEC’s CyberTipline (0.22 per cent) were geolocated in Canada; by 2025, that number had risen to 129,000 of the 23 million (0.55 per cent) received that year.
“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.”
Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, says an ‘all-hands-on-deck approach’ is needed to combat the spread of child sexual abuse and exploitation material online. (Rudi Pawlychyn/CBC)
SickKids review underway
After a second SickKids employee was arrested in August on child sex crime charges unrelated to those against Dissanyake, SickKids hired KPMG to conduct an external review, and is exploring future “programming” provided by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
“We recognize that even the strongest safeguards cannot prevent every instance of alleged criminal conduct. That is why we review our controls and strengthen them whenever possible,” the hospital said in a statement.
Toronto police told CBC that “at this time, investigators have found no evidence” that the alleged CSAEM is connected to Dissanayake’s medical practice. It said the investigation is ongoing, however, and anyone with information is urged to contact police.
Ruzycki says even assuming the alleged activity didn’t cross into Dissanayake’s interactions with his patients, such allegations can hurt families’ trust in the medical system.
“I really hope that it never translated to his clinical practice,” she said. “But even the perception that it could have, I think really affects how people interact with the medical system, how people trust adults, how people trust their community. I think it really harms us all.”
After his arrest, Dissanayake was released on $20,000 bail with restrictions on his internet use and interactions with minors.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 10.
