After five years of patronizing a beauty clinic just north of Toronto, Misha von Shlezinger decided to do something she now knows she should have done a long time ago: research the clinic and the people she had trusted to inject her.
What she found sent chills down her spine.
She thought back about her past experience at Elysium Beauty Clinic, and things she had brushed off now seemed like obvious red flags. The clinic staff pushed her to get a threadlift even though the procedure — sometimes called a “lunch-break facelift” — had previously left her unable to open her mouth properly for months.
As she dug into Elysium, she discovered the women who injected her with Botox and whom she alleges called themselves nurses, were not registered to be nurses in Ontario.
The doctor who was supposed to be watching over the clinic’s operations was never anywhere to be found, she says. And she found one of the clinic’s owners had been accused of a disturbing crime.
Von Shlezinger was determined to alert the public about her findings about Elysium. “I want them to stop hurting people,” she said.
On her quest for accountability, however, von Shlezinger was confronted by an oversight system working in silos, each with a limited focus on certain aspects of clinic operations but not always aware of what the other was doing. It appeared none of the regulators knew that one of the clinic owners had been charged with sexually assaulting a patient in the clinic.
Esthetic injectable industry is booming
The esthetic injectable industry in Canada is booming. In 2023, the market generated more than $700 million in revenue, according to an analysis by Grand View Research. By 2030, revenue is expected to surpass $1 billion.
But as the industry has grown, oversight of the clinics and the individuals performing the medical procedures has remained fractured.
“Because of the way regulations work, sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. And even when the left-hand knows what the right-hand is doing, neither of them has the power to do anything,” said Dr. Asif Pirani, a cosmetic plastic surgeon at the Toronto Plastic Surgery Center.
A recent Star investigation found that loose regulatory conditions have allowed unregulated staff to perform medical procedures without supervision in the esthetic sector.
It is part of a troubling trend in which clinics pay doctors or nurse practitioners to be listed as a medical director but have little to no involvement in the day-to-day operations, delegating the actual procedures to staff who may not be adequately qualified. Ontario’s medical watchdog is considering rule changes that would prevent physicians from doing this.
Von Shlezinger’s efforts to report alleged wrongdoing about one clinic reveal a dizzying and disjointed oversight system that she and others worry is not up to the task.
In an email to the Star, Elysium denied von Shlezinger’s allegations, calling them “false accusations” that the clinic claims is the latest in an “organized pattern of harassment and defamation” by business competitors.
“We never stated that our injectors are nurses because they are NOT!,” reads an emailed statement from Elysium in response to questions from the Star, adding that the injectors were delegated to do those treatments by the clinic’s medical director.
“We never violate any rules; we follow all guidelines and protocols.”
The clinic says von Shlezinger was satisfied with its care right up to her last treatment in early 2024, “even recording a video testimonial expressing her happiness with her results.” In June of that year, she sent an email demanding nearly $10,000. She threatened to report the clinic to regulators and the media, Elysium said, calling the email “extortion.”
Von Shlezinger acknowledged that she sent an email to the clinic to seek a refund for her treatments after she realized that the procedures were not done by medical staff. She said she was worried about how that may impact her health.
The clinic spokesperson said the business is now under different management and the two former owners — including its head injector — have left the country.
‘We never violate any rules,’ clinic says
It was 2019 when von Shlezinger first visited the Elysium clinic, which operates out of a storefront in a bustling plaza in Maple, Ont., beckoning patrons with a wide selection of cosmetic procedures and massages.
Originally from Moscow, von Shlezinger quickly bonded with two Russian-speaking injectors who warmly welcomed her and successfully dissolved a filler in her face.
One of them was the co-owner and head injector, Victoria Chernyak, who introduced herself as a registered nurse, von Shlezinger alleges in complaints she filed with the regulators. The other injector, Mounavvara Koudbidinova, said she was a “doctor in her motherland” and was a registered nurse in Ontario.
Von Shlezinger, 40, went for regular Botox injections from Chernyak and Koudbidinova.
In 2021, she says the Elysium staff talked her into undergoing a threadlift.
Known as a “lunch-break facelift,” a threadlift is an increasingly popular procedure that involves pushing barbed threads into the skin’s inner layer using a thin tube and leaving the threads embedded in the skin for the lifting and tightening effect. A Star investigation — unrelated to Elysium — found threadlift providers in Ontario made misleading claims about the quality and effectiveness of the threads, while they soft-pedalled potential risks.
In Ontario, threadlifts, like Botox and dermal fillers, can only be done by authorized health professionals or their delegates because they could result in potential harm if administered by unqualified people.
Shortly after the first threadlift, von Shlezinger alleges she noticed “weird liquid” coming from the threads through her right cheekbone. Pictures she shared with the Star show visible bleeding and bruising from the insertion positions near her temple and dimpling and swelling on her cheeks.
She alleges Elysium’s Chernyak told her the side effects were normal and temporary. They eventually went away. The following year, she says Elysium staff again talked her into getting another threadlift. For months after, she felt discomfort along her jawline. Then, at a dentist’s appointment, she says she was unable to open her mouth wide enough for an X-ray.
Elysium says there “simply is no proof” that the clinic’s treatments harmed von Shlezinger in any way.
Von Shlezinger vowed never to have another threadlift. In 2023, she says, the Elysium staff were again pushing her to undergo the treatment, this time to her nose. She turned it down. She later found out neither woman was a registered nurse as she believed them to be.
Medical director ‘cautioned’ over conduct
In Ontario, injections at cosmetic clinics, med spas and even hair salons are often done by nurses and sometimes estheticians through delegation.
As medical director, physicians and nurse practitioners can delegate authority to inject to others in the esthetic clinic setting. The delegating medical director is expected to provide supervision and support as needed.
Elysium told the Star that neither Chernyak nor Koudbidinova told anyone that they were nurses and that they were allowed to inject through delegation. Despite not being a registered nurse, Koudbidinova has extensive experience, the clinic says, having worked as a dermatologist overseas for more than 20 years.
Dr. Arthur Staroselsky had been listed as the medical director at Elysium since at least 2019. He was supposed to oversee the operations and delegate the treatments to the injectors.
Von Shlezinger says she never saw or met him, nor was she offered a consultation with him.
The clinic told the Star that von Shlezinger refused consultation with the doctor when she first signed the consent forms.
In July 2024, von Shlezinger filed a complaint against Staroselsky to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), the provincial regulator of doctors, alleging he was not fulfilling his required duties as a medical director at Elysium. His name was taken off the clinic’s website shortly after the college posted its decision.
After a 10-month investigation, the CPSO put Staroselsky on a restricted licence, imposing a series of conditions on his practice including a requirement that he complete professional education and appear before a panel to be “cautioned” in person. The restrictions no longer appear on his profile on the college’s public registry.
While Staroselsky acknowledged that at no time did he consult with the patient or attempt to establish a physician-patient relationship with her, as required of a medical director, he explained he was unaware of his obligations under the college’s delegation of controlled acts policy, according to the CPSO decision letter reviewed by the Star. He told the college he has since made changes to how he delegates.
The college noted that it considered a similar complaint against Staroselsky in 2019. In that case, the CPSO had ordered Staroselsky to complete a remedial agreement but later rescinded the decision after finding the complainant had never in fact been a patient of the doctor’s, according to the decision letter.
In response to von Shlezinger’s complaint, the college flagged the doctor’s lack of knowledge and adherence to the college’s policies, as well as his lack of accountability and knowledge of the operations of the clinic as a whole and the actions of staff members, according to the record provided to the Star.
Staroselsky, a family physician at a clinic in Thornhill, declined to answer any questions on the phone or via email, and referred the Star to Elysium and the CPSO’s website for details of the college’s investigation.
Elysium dismissed von Shlezinger’s allegations as part of an organized pattern of harassment from competitors in the industry that has targeted the clinic for 15 years. When she complained about the clinic on social media, Elysium’s lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter ordering her to remove the “false statements and unflattering comments.”
The clinic accuses von Shlezinger of working with their competitor to spread false allegations in exchange for free Botox treatments.
She denied the accusation, and said she is going to another clinic now but that clinic has nothing to do with the allegations she made.
‘Between the cracks’
Beauty clinics and med spas that offer medical treatments seem to “fall right in between the cracks of the oversights,” said Dr. Ashwani Singh, who is the director of a beauty clinic in Edmonton and is among a group of doctors pressing Ottawa to step up oversight of the sector.
Health Canada regulates the sale and use of health products, not the practitioners. Provincial colleges oversee the practice of licensed doctors and nurses but not other clinic staff such as estheticians and injectors. In Ontario, local public health units license and inspect beauty clinics, but they mainly focus on ensuring clinics’ infection prevention measures are up to standard.
With no single provincial or national body overseeing these clinics, von Shlezinger has been forced to pursue different avenues for accountability, an experience that has left her concerned that oversight of this booming industry is too fragmented to work.
She brought a complaint to the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) alleging the injectors pretended to be registered nurses and performed procedures without proper oversight.
The matter is currently under investigation.
Von Shlezinger also filed a complaint with York Region’s public health unit, which conducts annual inspections of beauty clinics such as Elysium. The agency told her it had completed a three-day investigation into her complaint but would not share details.
During her digging, she also discovered that one of Elysium’s owners was facing a serious criminal charge.
Aleksei Chernyak, had been arrested by York Regional Police in 2021 and charged with sexual assault. The Star has learned from a source close to the investigation that the sexual assault occurred at the clinic and involved a client. In September, Aleksei was convicted in a Toronto court in absentia, and the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
The regulator overseeing this side of Elysium’s business, however, had no idea. The College of Massage Therapists of Ontario said it was unaware of the criminal charge as its members are legally required to self-report criminal charges and convictions but Aleksei never did. Aleksei’s registration has since been suspended.
The Star could not find any instance when Elysium publicly acknowledged Aleksei’s conviction. Elysium did not respond to specific questions about the owner’s criminal offence.
Social media posts indicated that Victoria and Aleksei have been in Benidorm, Spain since at least June — about a month after CPSO concluded its investigation on Elysium’s medical director. In an Aug. 6 post on Instagram, Victoria announced that a “new service” was introduced in Spain with a video featuring Aleksei as a certified osteopath and massage therapist with international experience.
When reached out on social media, Victoria told the Star that the business has been sold a long time ago and she and Aleksei do not live in Canada.
“I do not know you and have no desire to continue the conversation,” she said.
