- Canada doctor now faces four first-degree murder charges

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) - Canadian police slapped three first-degree murder charges against a doctor on Wednesday who was out on bail awaiting trial on another murder charge.

All four charges leveled against Brian Nadler, 35, involve the deaths of elderly patients at a hospital in Hawkesbury, a city with a population of 10,000 in eastern Ontario.

Nadler, arrested again Wednesday, was first charged in March 2021 in the death of Albert Poindinger, 89, in 2021. At that time, authorities said they were investigating several suspicious deaths at the Hawkesbury and District General Hospital.

In July of that year, Nadler was released on 10,000 Canadian dollars ($7,800) bail, with conditions that he not practice medicine, remain in Canada and have no contact with patients or staff at Hawkesbury hospital.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the regulatory body for doctors, suspended his license near the time of the first murder charge.

While police are not saying how the victims died, it is known that medications to treat coronavirus patients are part of the investigation, according to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News.

The new charges are related to victims age 79, 80 and 93. Online obituaries said two of the victims died in the hospital March 25, 2021.