WOMAN SEEKS COMPENSATION FOR MCGILL BRAINWASHING EXPERIMENTS

Canadian Government's Cold War Experiments Involved Electroshocks, Drugs

MONTREAL (CUP)--Five decades after a McGill University researcher
subjected a Montreal woman to massive electroshocks and experimental
drugs, and forced her to listen to hours of recorded messages, she is
seeking compensation from the Canadian government.

Janine Huard was one of hundreds of people Dr Ewen Cameron
experimented on without their knowledge in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Last week, her lawyers argued before a federal court judge that she
should be allowed to file a class-action lawsuit against the
government of Canada, who funded the experiments jointly with the
United States' Central Intelligence Agency.

Cameron first treated Huard in 1951 when she went to see him for
postpartum depression. She continued to see the doctor until 1962,
during which time she served unknowingly as a participant in
Cameron's behaviour-control experiments.

As director of McGill's Allan Memorial Institute, Cameron developed
"psychic driving," a technique that he hoped would cure mental
patients by erasing their memories and constructing a new psyche for them.

Cameron used electroshock, sensory deprivation and drugs such as LSD
to "de-pattern" his patients, returning them to a childlike state and
leaving them open to suggestions from recordings played repeatedly
while they slept.

His work attracted the attention of the CIA, which, from 1957 to
1960, funded his research as part of the infamous Project MK-ULTRA,
aimed at developing techniques to control behaviour.

According to testimony before a 1977 US Senate committee, MK-ULTRA
also saw LSD administered to US prison inmates and patrons of
brothels without their knowledge.

Huard received US $67 000 from the CIA in 1988 as compensation for
her suffering, but has been denied similar compensation from the
Canadian government three times on the grounds that she was not fully
de-patterned. In 1994, the government handed out $100 000 each to 77
former patients of Cameron. Another 253 claims were rejected.

In a book on the experiments first published in 1988, author Anne
Collins supports the government's contention, writing that although
Huard was exposed to electric shock and drugs "to the point that she
had suffered extended periods of involuntary trembling," she was not
actually de-patterned.

But Alan Stein, Huard's lawyer, disputed this claim.

"In my opinion, [Huard] was totally de-patterned. She was subjected
to not only electroshock treatment but also psychic driving," he said.

So far, the court has not decided whether to allow the class-action
suit to proceed. The government is contesting the application on the
grounds that Huard waited too long to file the suit--Cameron died
more than 40 years ago, and it has been ten years since the court
rejected her last claim.

But in 2004, the court overturned another decision from 1994, and
awarded Gail Kastner $100 000. Kastner was among the claimants who
weren't awarded the federal government's original compensation
package. Her treatments were found to be less intense, with fewer
long-term effects.

Stein was unwilling to express optimism that the court would
ultimately allow the suit to proceed. However, he said that the
merits of the case and the exceptional circumstances surrounding it
were strong enough to justify a decision in Huard's favour. He also
encouraged the public to write letters in support of Huard to
recently appointed Justice Minister Robert Nicholson.

Stein added that he was surprised and disappointed that McGill hasn't
made a public statement about the case, or apologized for what
happened to Huard.

As of press time, no McGill official would comment on the matter.