EX-CON TO SUE OVER LSD TESTS

Prison Experiments 'Callous, Reckless,' Woman Claims

A former inmate at Kingston's Prison for Women is suing the federal
government and her former psychologist and psychiatrist for using her as a
guinea pig in an LSD experiment 37 years ago.

Dorothy Mills Proctor was one of 23 women given the hallucinogenic drug as
part of an experiment to reduce criminal behaviour in the early 1960s. The
$5-million lawsuit, to be filed today by her lawyer in the Ontario Court of
Justice, general division in Ottawa, claims federal officials, the prison
and its staff were "callous and reckless" in administering the drug to her.

At the time, Ms. Proctor was 17 and was serving a three-year robbery
sentence. At least one LSD treatment was conducted while she was locked in
solitary confinement.

"(The defendants) were so eager to find a cheap solution to the high cost
of rehabilitation of inmates that they were prepared to ignore the
potentially disastrous consequences of LSD 25," says Ms. Proctor's
statement of claim.

"The defendants were motivated by the desire to use the plaintiff for
experimental purposes, as opposed to being motivated by a desire to promote
the plaintiff's well-being."

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the federal government and the two
therapists who administered the treatments.

The defendants have yet to file a statement of defence. A statement of
claim contains allegations not yet proved in court.

Ms. Proctor's lawyers, along with representatives of the Canadian
Association off Elizabeth Fry Societies and the B'Nai Brith League for
Human Rights, were to attend a press conference in Ottawa today in support
of Ms. Proctor where the lawsuit was to be publicly announced.

"I feel very uncomfortable being a Canadian citizen having to sue my own
government," Ms. Proctor said in an interview yesterday. "But I feel
justified in doing it. This has to be exposed. The government is
responsible, they are accountable ethically, morally and legally."

Ms. Proctor first complained to federal officials in 1996 about being
subjected to LSD and electro-shock therapy while in federal prison.

A Corrections Canada internal board of inquiry investigated her complaint
and concluded last year that Ms. Proctor and the 22 other women deserve an
apology and compensation. The board uncovered the involvement of the other
22 women as a result of Ms. Proctor's initial complaint.

Ms. Proctor and at least one other inmate contacted by the board said they
still suffered from severe flashbacks as a result of the treatment. The
report says the women likely suffer from a condition called Post
Hallucinogen Perceptual Disorder (PHPD), which was first recognized in 1958.

The board recommended that the women receive a full apology and a
settlement package from the government. It concluded that exposing women to
LSD in a prison setting "could lead to substantial, debilitating long term
negative effects." It was dubious that consent could be obtained from
inmates in a coercive prison setting.

However, Corrections Canada decided to shelve those findings and refer to
matter to the McGill Centre Medicine, Ethics and the Law for further study.
It was supposed to make its recommendations by the end of May, but its
mandate has since been extended.

Rubin Freidman, spokesman for the B'Nai Brith's League For Human Rights,
says the government is "stonewalling" Ms. Proctor and reflects a troubling
and consistent pattern that has been seen throughout the Somalia Inquiry
and numerous human rights cases.

"Why do they need another report?" he said. "It seems to be something that
is consistent not only from this government but from others."

In the early '60s -- years before it became part of the decade's
counterculture -- LSD was legal and was viewed in the psychiatric community
as potential wonder drug that could be an effective therapeutic tool.
However, as last year's board of inquiry concluded, "this promise was
considered more of a hypothesis than a proven fact." The drug was banned in
Canada in 1969.

The use of LSD in that era has come back to haunt taxpayers generations
later. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
funded the "psychic driving" LSD brainwashing experiments of Dr. Ewen
Cameron at the Allen Memorial Institute at McGill University in Montreal.
In 1992, the federal government paid out $7.7 million to Dr. Cameron's
victims.

In 1996, a former U.S. soldier in Florida successfully sued the military
and the CIA for using him as an unwitting guinea pig in CIA-backed LSD
experiment 38 years earlier.

James Newland, Ms. Proctor's lawyer, said the experiment on Ms. Proctor was
worse than those by Dr. Cameron because of the prison setting.

"Every aspect of their (the inmate's) life is controlled," he said. "They
are subject to punishment or benefit depending on how they interact with
the system."

The lawsuit claims Ms. Proctor was assaulted because she was given a drug
known to be harmful. It also claims the prison is guilty of a breach of
trust because it failed to "protect her and safeguard her." And it accuses
the prison and its staff of negligence for several reasons, including
incompetence and failure to acknowledge the risks involved.

Copyright 1998 The Ottawa Citizen