{"id":73601,"date":"2024-06-15T10:14:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T10:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/15\/shattered-by-montreal-mind-control-experiments-but-undeterred-in-a-suit\/"},"modified":"2024-06-15T10:14:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T10:14:05","slug":"shattered-by-montreal-mind-control-experiments-but-undeterred-in-a-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/15\/shattered-by-montreal-mind-control-experiments-but-undeterred-in-a-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Shattered by Montreal Mind-Control Experiments, but Undeterred in a Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/15\/multimedia\/15canadaletter-pbvf\/15canadaletter-pbvf-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Shattered by Montreal Mind-Control Experiments, but Undeterred in a Suit\" title=\"Shattered by Montreal Mind-Control Experiments, but Undeterred in a Suit\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Every weekend was an adventure for Julie Tanny when she was a young girl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her father, Charles, made sure of it, surprising his three children with trips and visits to the amusement park. His warmth radiated physically, too, when he would rub his children\u2019s ice-cold feet back to life after a skate at their backyard rink in Montreal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Everything changed in the winter of 1957. A tooth filling gone awry spurred an excruciating neurological condition that stumped five of his doctors. They referred him to the Allan Memorial Institute, a psychiatric hospital at McGill University in Montreal, where he was admitted for three months of treatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Ms. Tanny\u2019s father was released, the man who came home was distant, irate, confused and physically abusive. He did not remember that he owned a snowblower business. He was barely able to recognize his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was as though his brain had been reprogrammed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As Ms. Tanny would later learn, it largely was. Her father had unknowingly become a patient of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist running a secret mind-control experiment claimed to be funded by the Central Intelligence Agency as part of a Cold War-era program known as MK-ULTRA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe was like a shell of what he was before,\u201d Ms. Tanny, a retired wholesale jeweler, said. \u201cHe was just a completely different person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tanny, 70, is the lead plaintiff in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clg.org\/Class-Action\/List-of-Class-Actions\/Allan-Memorial-Institute-Experiments-Class-Action\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">class-action lawsuit<\/a> filed in 2019 against the institutions linked to the experiment and the Canadian and United States governments. About 400 people, mostly families of former patients who were treated at the clinic between 1948 and 1964, have joined the effort, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But their legal battle was recently dealt a setback. A Quebec judge approved a request by the United States to dismiss the case against it, arguing that foreign states are immune from the jurisdiction of Canadian courts. The ruling was upheld in the province\u2019s court of appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected a request for appeal, meaning that the case against the United States is dismissed but will proceed against the Canadian government, McGill University Health Center and its associated Royal Victoria Hospital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Cameron\u2019s experiments included intensive electroshock therapy, drug-induced comas, sensory deprivation and a regimen of powerful medications to alter nerve function, according to the claim. These methods led to the erasure of thoughts and changed behavior patterns, rendering patients childlike. Some had to relearn how to use the bathroom after losing the ability to control their bladders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some patients, according to the claim, were forced to listen up to 500,000 times to a looped audio tape of phrases intended to rewire their brains: \u201cYou are selfish\u201d or \u201cMy mother hates me\u201d or \u201cYou are lovable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The families of patients argue that these treatments were a form of psychological torture that the patients did not consent to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The fallout of Dr. Cameron\u2019s experiments shattered the lives of families and traumatized patients, said Jeff Orenstein, the class-action lawyer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey just came out sort of robots, robotlike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United States and Canadian governments compensated some victims as the extent of the \u201cMontreal Experiments\u201d came to light, but their families were not, the claim said. Ms. Tanny\u2019s father received 100,000 Canadian dollars, an amount she said hardly reflected the true cost of his mental, and then physical, lapse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He had two massive heart attacks, which Ms. Tanny believes were a direct aftermath of the electroshock therapy, and a stroke that left him debilitated. He required round-the-clock care, and Ms. Tanny\u2019s brother abandoned his young career in law to take over their father\u2019s business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI paid the price for those experiments my whole life,\u201d she told me from her home in Montreal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Neither government nor the hospitals or McGill University has formally apologized for their participation, the claim says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The case has been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/newsinteractives.cbc.ca\/longform\/brainwashed-mkultra\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">widely covered in Canada<\/a>, but most families of victims are still reluctant to speak publicly about it, Ms. Tanny said. Others have detailed harrowing stories of abuse, cycling between foster homes after losing parents to the experiment and having to fight for answers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tanny decided to file the action after reading, in 2017, about the case of another daughter of a brainwashing patient, who quietly <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/cia-brainwashing-allanmemorial-mentalhealth-1.4373590\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">reached a settlement<\/a> with the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tanny\u2019s father died in 1993. After his stroke at the age of 60, he couldn\u2019t write, speak or walk for the remaining 18 years of his life, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For her, one of the most harrowing parts of the legacy of the Montreal Experiments is thinking of how much was lost: happy family lives, careers, relationships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe didn\u2019t really realize our full potential, with either taking care of a parent that was ill or suffering the repercussions for traumatic changes at home,\u201d she said. \u201cImagine a father who doesn\u2019t know who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-b4a7c02\">Trans Canada<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The New York Times in Toronto.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">How are we doing?<\/strong><br \/>We\u2019re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/15\/world\/canada\/mailto:nytcanada@nytimes.com?%20subject=Canada%20Letter%20Newsletter%20Feedback\" title=\"\">nytcanada@nytimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Like this email?<\/strong><br \/>Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/newsletters\/canada-letter?smid=nytemail&amp;smvar=canadaletter&amp;te=1&amp;nl=canada-today&amp;emc=edit_cnda_20190622\" title=\"\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/15\/world\/canada\/montreal-mind-control-experiments.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every weekend was an adventure for Julie Tanny when she was a young girl. Her father, Charles, made sure of it, surprising his three children with trips and visits to the amusement park. His warmth radiated physically, too, when he would rub his children\u2019s ice-cold feet back to life after a skate at their backyard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/15\/multimedia\/15canadaletter-pbvf\/15canadaletter-pbvf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20958,67387,45297,28531,10400,67388],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73603,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73601\/revisions\/73603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}