Saskatchewan’s Health Minister says his government has asked the organization that regulates doctors and the treasury crown tasked with protecting consumers to investigate concerns raised in a recent CBC investigation of a controversial health centre in Moose Jaw.
He made those comments after being questioned by the provincial NDP about that story in the legislature.
That facility, the Dr. Goodenowe Restorative Health Center, has claimed it has a 100 per cent success rate in halting and reversing the progress of ALS — a degenerative disease that causes gradual muscle loss. The centre is run by Dayan Goodenowe, who is not a medical doctor.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, deputy minister of health Tracey Smith wrote, “The ministry is concerned about this individual and private business engaging in what appears to be the unauthorized practice of medicine.”
“The ministry is very concerned about the harm this may be causing patients and others in Saskatchewan,” Smith wrote.
As a result, the ministry wants the college to “take all appropriate steps, including opening a formal investigation into the centre.”
The government is calling for this action after a CBC story earlier this week about 70-year-old Susie Silvestri. Last year, the American put her North Carolina home up for sale so she could afford to take part in the centre’s three-month live-in program, believing that Goodenowe’s supplements would enable her to walk again.
During her stay last fall, her health deteriorated. She ended up being forced to flee the province in a rented ambulance, with borrowed medical equipment, so she could get life-saving surgery in the United States that her insurance company wouldn’t pay for in Canada.
Silvestri died alone in a Montana hospital on Dec. 26, 2024, just four months after paying the Goodenowe centre $84,000 USD.
Susie’s situation is reminiscent of the stories shared by other Goodenowe clients in an earlier CBC story. Dayan Goodenowe, the man who runs the facility, has questioned those reports and filed a lawsuit against CBC claiming its coverage of his program is defamatory.
In an email to Goodenowe and his company, CBC outlined the concerns raised in the recent story about Susie Silvestri and asked for comment. In reply, Goodenowe’s lawyer wrote, “No comment. We don’t talk to people we are in active litigation against.”
CBC asked Goodenowe for comment about this story and he has not replied.
Minister wants consumer affairs review
The health minister has asked the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan to probe concerns about the Goodenowe centre. It is a treasury crown corporation responsible for protecting consumers in the province.
“Given the fact that dollars changed hands and concern that the services being offered I guess by this private business may not have been accurate to the way that they were represented to the customer, we’ll also be directing the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority to take a look at this specific situation and this specific business,” Cockrill told the media in the legislature Monday.
He said that “on the website for Mr. Goodenowe’s business there is a disclaimer at the bottom that talks about a focus on research and other services rather than treating and diagnosing health care issues.”
CBC pointed out that in his brochure promoting the program, Goodenow promises those with degenerative diseases like ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, “biochemical restoration” using a “systemic protocol” of Goodenowe’s plasmalogen supplements.
The brochure also says the Goodenowe centre will develop “fine-tuned individualized treatment plans” and “a personalized post-treatment plan” for clients.
That generalized promise was specifically applied to one client with ALS, Rebecca Bader, when she and her husband Eric were looking into the Goodenowe program last year. In an email, a Goodenowe sales representative said, “To start with plasmalogens, the process generally involves a consultation to assess her specific needs and to tailor a treatment plan.”
In a question to Cockrill, CBC highlighted Goodenowe’s offer of treatment in his literature.
“That’s exactly why … we’ve directed the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority to look into this,” said Cockrill. “It’s important that the goods and services that you offer to customers should be accurate and I think the FCAA has a role to play here and that’s why we’ve directed them to take a look.”
Goodenowe not a medical doctor
Cockrill also is asking the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS) to look into concerns about the Goodenowe centre.
The private facility is unregulated and operates outside of the provincial health care system. It doesn’t employ any medical professionals.
Dayan Goodenowe has a PhD in medical sciences with a focus on psychiatry from the University of Alberta. However, he is not a medical doctor and therefore is not a member of the CPSS.
Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill wants that body to investigate the Goodenowe centre.
“[CBC’s] reporting has brought to the forefront certainly more situations. There should be some questions asked and again that’s where we’ll make that formal request to the CPSS and have a further discussion with them,” said Cockrill.
In the ministry’s letter to the college, it highlights the fact that a non-doctor is not allowed to:
- Treat any disease or ailment by medicine, drugs or any form of treatment.
- Use any title that would lead people to infer the person is registered under the act or is otherwise a physician.
- Use the term “doctor” or advertise or hold oneself out as such.
- Pretend to be a physician.
Cockrill suggested that the college should look into whether Goodenowe, as a non-doctor, is violating these or any other provisions of the act.
“It is the government’s position that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan has the powers under the medical profession act to mete out any discipline that may be required to this individual, Mr. Speaker,” said Cockrill in the legislature Monday, under questioning from the provincial NDP. “We would encourage the college to do so.”
Who enforces the law?
CBC asked the college if it will do as the minister has asked but the organization has not yet responded.
In making this request, the province has walked onto what appears to be contentious ground.
Following CBC’s reporting earlier in the year, Cockrill at that time also suggested the college was the right entity to investigate concerns about the Goodenowe centre.
Earlier this year, the college said the province was misinformed.
“I disagree that the College of Physicians and Surgeons is the agency designated to prosecute offences that the government of Saskatchewan has adopted into Saskatchewan legislation,” Bryan Salte, associate registrar and legal counsel with the college, wrote on July 21, 2025.
“There is nothing in The Medical Profession Act, 1981 that supports that view.”
Salte said, in his view, the act only empowers the college to regulate members and not to investigate alleged offences committed by non-doctors.
When CBC told the province about Salte’s comments, the government acknowledged there was some confusion on this matter and it promised a review “to ensure there is clarity on who enforces the act.”
The province made that commitment July 23.
Under questioning Monday, the minister acknowledged that there is still no clarity.
“I think we’ll still have some work to do to sort that out with the College of Physicians and Surgeons,” said Cockrill.
Goodenowe client complained to college
In October 2024, Teresa Sando and her husband Geoff left the Goodenowe Centre believing he failed to deliver what he promised. The American couple was trying to figure out where to complain.
They had been in the Goodenowe centre, right down the hall from Susie Silvestri.
Geoff has ALS and he went to the facility because he was told in a sales call that, “We have a 100 per cent success rate in stopping the progression and in restoring function of people with ALS.” But, he says, his condition continued to deteriorate while in the program.
When asked about that during CBC’s investigation earlier this year, Goodenowe questioned that claim. “We do document every single person that comes through our centre, OK? They leave that centre better than they came in, OK? And that’s just simply a fact.”
Teresa reached out to Evan Thompson, a lawyer with the college, to raise her concerns.
On Nov. 7, 2024, he asked for more information, writing, “I am hoping to write a memo for our Executive Committee that would need to be filed tomorrow morning, so whatever I have for information from you at that point I will make sure to include for them.”
She wrote a nine-page summary and forwarded emails and audio files backing up her claims.
After a bit more back and forth, the file was turned over to Bryan Salte in February 2025 for scheduling reasons.
In a Feb. 13, 2025, email, he told Teresa, “We have retained a lawyer with a private law firm to bring an application for an injunction. An injunction is a court order that the person not practise medicine.”
Salte then asked for additional information.
“In order to obtain such an order, I think that we need substantial evidence of the harm that people are experiencing due to Mr. Goodenowe’s conduct. Evidence that you can provide, or that we can obtain through you is likely to be very relevant,” Salte wrote.
‘Ghosted’ by the college
Teresa said she would gather more evidence from other former Goodenowe clients.
In her final email to the college on March 29, 2025, Teresa wrote, “I don’t know the timeline for CPSS on the Goodenowe case but if you need anything you can give me a call. We have several patients and caregivers wanting to report their experience at the [Goodenowe centre] in Moose Jaw.
“I believe we’re up to 11 now.”
At that point, she said, the conversation petered out. She did not hear from Salte again.
Now with the province calling on the college for an investigation, Teresa is once again wondering what happened.
“If there is a law, then there is someone assigned to enforce it. How can that be in limbo?” she wrote in a text to CBC.
“Why not the college of physicians enforce it? They sure acted interested in having me supply them hours of information about Goodenowe and the center and then just ghosted me.”
CBC asked the college what happened with its investigation of Teresa’s concerns. It has not yet replied.
