11 assault charges laid against fake nurse who worked at Vancouver hospital for a year

New charges for Brigitte Cleroux, currently serving 7-year sentence, stem from time at B.C. Women’s Hospital

Brigitte Cleroux, the woman who impersonated a nurse for a year at B.C. Women’s Hospital, has been charged with a long list of new offences, including 11 counts of assault and assault with a weapon.

The new charges were sworn in Vancouver provincial court on Wednesday, according to court records.

Cleroux, 50, is now accused of eight counts of assault with a weapon, three counts of assault, four counts of using a forged document, and one count each of fraud over $5,000 and personation with intent to gain advantage.

Vancouver police have yet to provide any further information about the charges, but the dates of the alleged offences span Cleroux’s full term at the hospital, from June 2020 to June 2021.

Fraud and impersonation charges against Cleroux were first announced in Vancouver in November.

She worked as a perioperative nurse at the hospital, assisting with an untold number of surgeries. Several patients have told CBC she provided them with pain medication or sedation during their proceedings.

Spokespeople for the hospital’s operator, the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), declined to comment Friday on the new charges against Cleroux.

At least 67 adult convictions

This is far from the first time Cleroux has been accused of crimes related to impersonation.

She has a long criminal history across North America, with at least 67 convictions as an adult, including several for pretending to be a nurse or a teacher. She is still wanted on two active warrants in Florida and one in Colorado.

Cleroux is currently in prison after receiving a seven-year prison sentence for crimes including personation, assault with a weapon and assault related to her time posing as a nurse at a fertility clinic and a dental clinic in Ottawa for a few weeks in the summer of 2021.

Patients from B.C. Women’s Hospital have filed a proposed class action lawsuit accusing PHSA of negligence.

In a response to those allegations, PHSA denies that administrators should have known Cleroux was a phoney — and says it took all reasonable steps to confirm she was a qualified nurse.

The PHSA response also reveals that Cleroux’s colleagues began complaining she was rude and disrespectful within weeks after she started at the hospital.

She was placed on administrative leave for a few weeks in the fall of 2020 while administrators investigated five separate incidents, including using force on a patient and saying she wanted to “punch or hit” a colleague in the face, according to the PHSA response.

That behaviour ultimately resulted in a one-day suspension, after which she was allowed to return to work, the health authority says.

During her leave from the hospital, it appears Cleroux found more nursing work in B.C. Management at Victoria’s private View Royal Surgical Clinic have confirmed she worked there for three weeks in November 2020.