Glamorous doctor 'faked cancer diagnosis to scam friend out of $160,000'

A glamorous Canadian doctor has been banned from practicing medicine and shamed by friends who say she scammed them out of $160,000 with a fake cancer diagnosis. 

Monica Kehar is accused of fabricating the illness to bilk friend Dr. Meaghan Labine out of money after mysteriously vanishing.

The pair met in 2018 when both were chosen to sit on the national body representing the College of Family Physicians of Canada. 

Labine says Kehar preyed on her conscience, asking her for the money after lying about a breast cancer diagnosis and claiming she was struggling to afford housing for a residency program in Calgary.

'It just seemed like no matter how much I lent, it was never enough,' Labine told CBC News.

Labine plied Kehar with contracts that she signed, promising to repay her, but the requests didn't stop.

'I felt absolutely humiliated,' Labine told the outlet. 'How could I be so stupid as to be led on like this?'

She would later learn that Kehar had not only lied about the illness, but had not been accepted into a residency program in Calgary, either.

In fact, Kehar was expelled from her medical program following a series of infractions that culminated with the fabrication of a 'serious medical condition.'

On November 13, 2020, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba Investigation Committee censured Kehar 'as a record of its disapproval of her conduct.'

According to documents reviewed by DailyMail.com, Kehar registered with the College and enrolled as a first-year family medicine resident at the University of Manitoba in February 2019. 

However, she began participating in an elective in Saskatchewan without the necessary license. Kehar would later claim that this slip-up was 'inadvertent.'

After she was alerted to the problem, Kehar immediately stopped practicing and altered an email she had received from the College before forwarding it to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan.

'This was an apparent attempt by Ms Kehar to remedy the situation and to deflect responsibility for this error from herself onto the College,' the document reads.

The College discovered the alteration on February 14, 2019 and reported to the University of Manitoba the same day.

The finding prompted both the College and University to conduct months-long investigations into Kehar’s behavior.

She denied altering the email, but was placed on paid leave of absence pending further review.

Kehar later contacted administrators claiming 'she had received an email from another person who confessed to hacking her account and altering the February 13, 2019 email.'

Around March 13, Kehar was allowed to return to her resident duties, and around two days later, the University provided her with a report showing there was no evidence to support the hacking claims.

Kehar ultimately took responsibility for altering the document, blaming 'a brief episode of mental exhaustion.' She claimed the decision had arisen from 'fear, stress, exhaustion and nervousness.'

Also in 2019, Kehar had her English bulldog, Django, registered as an 'emotional support dog' for 'stress related' reasons in Alberta, records reviewed by DailyMail.com show.

She later admitted that she had altered the offending email and was expelled from the University of Manitoba's Family Medicine Program on May 7.

'Her expulsion was based on her admission to having altered the e-mail in question, and the Faculty's finding that Ms Kehar had been dishonest in relation to certain other academic events, which she denied,' the document states.

Just weeks later, Kehar appealed her expulsion to the University's Local Discipline Committee.

In the appeal, she 'described a concern that she might have had a serious health condition...and that she underwent a surgical procedure to address the concern in January of 2019.'

The document quotes her as saying, 'Though I am not comfortable discussing this issue, I now understand that it is relevant to this matter and had an impact on me and my actions during this time.'

On May 28, seven days after filing the appeal, Kehar was interviewed by the College Investigator. She described 'going through a very difficult time' beginning at the end of 2018 and 'feeling extremely stressed at the time.'

Kehar also insisted that she had undergone surgery on January 8, but failed to provide documentation.

The appeal of Kehar’s expulsion was heard and dismissed that June - but she filed again in July.

In August, Kehar provided the College with a letter purportedly written by the office manager of her surgeon's clinic as proof of the aforementioned surgical procedure.

Her lawyers claimed that there was no documentation from the hospital because Kehar 'did not stay overnight.'

Subsequent investigations by the College found no evidence to support Kehar's assertion of a diagnosis, nor her claim of having undergone surgery at the hospital she named.

Moreover, an investigation found that the letter she provided had been written much earlier and about a different matter, but Kehar altered it.

The surgeon she identified confirmed that the only procedures he had ever performed on Kehar were in October 2017 and February 2018, and neither were related to the supposed 'serious medical condition.'

The second appeal of her expulsion was heard on January 24, 2020, and dismissed five days later.

The College later learned that Kehar had lied to two colleagues about her personal circumstances, including the state of her health, 'to garner sympathy and support.'

Those colleagues loaned Kehar 'substantial sums of money in response to requests from her for assistance on multiple occasions,' according to the document.

Kehar 'acknowledged that her conduct was a serious mistake and expressed remorse over her actions in retrospect,' and 'acknowledged that she has demonstrated an unfitness to practice.' 

Her expulsion was upheld, meaning she was barred from practicing medicine in the country.

Despite this, Kehar moved to British Columbia and founded Prestige Body Lab, an electrical muscle stimulation clinic, billing herself as a doctor all the while.

Business cards viewed by DailyMail.com promise 'M.D. provided services' at the clinic in Surrey, which has since shuttered.

Per Canadian regulations, Kehar is still allowed to refer to herself as a doctor or MD, but cannot mislead the public into believing she is licensed to practice medicine.

And some former clients insist this is just what she did.

On the clinic's Instagram page, which has since been taken down, Kehar advertised 'free MD consultations' and services in exchange for honest reviews.

One comment beneath a testimonial from May 2023 asserts that Kehar 'lied to thousands of women by presenting as an active doctor.'

'Just giving you a friendly heads up as many influencers have had to put out public, apologies to the women in the greater Vancouver area as they were being held responsible for promoting this particular businesswoman in return for free sessions or discounted sessions,' the commenter wrote.

Another user claimed they were 'one of her victims' and thanked the original commenter for 'saving lots of people from her.'

Despite winning a default judgement against Kehar in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2022, Labine has yet to be reimbursed for the thousands of dollars lost.

She recently filed a lawsuit in British Columbia in an attempt to get her hands on the money. While Kehar has promised to pay her back, Labine has her doubts.

'When pressed for specifics or meeting with my lawyer, she provides nothing,' she told CBC News.