Justice Needed Now

Posted July 18, 2007

I have been an activist in the case of the Duplessis Orphans for the past 15 years, seeking to obtain justice for the survivors involved in what I believe was genocide in the Canadian province of Quebec.

For those who may not know, the Duplessis Orphans took their name after the former premier of Quebec, Maurice Duplessis, under whose regime they suffered.Crimes against humanity were committed by psychiatrists from both Canada and the United States, with the victims thousands of innocent Quebec children. (See “North America’s Crime of the Century?“)

These crimes included torture, rapes, sodomies, beatings and whippings, electroshock of normal children, lobotomies given to normal children, and tons of what were then experimental drugs given to normal children. These drugs included chlorpromazine (Thorazine), Mellaril and Haldol - all powerful neuroleptic “nerve-seizing” drugs — as well as barbiturates and others.

Thousands of children died from experiments or abuse. Thousands just disappeared, leaving no medical files or death certificates.

We know that at least a couple of thousand orphans were buried in a mass grave site on the Saint Jean de Dieu psychiatric hospital grounds in Montreal, next to a hog farm.

The hospitals were selling the orphans’ bodies for $50 to universities for medical research and the bodies would come back, chopped to pieces. Recently, I learned that pigs will eat human bones and flesh. This cemetery was called the “Pig Sty Cemetery” by the orphans and I suspect that the bodies of many of the orphans were eaten up by the pigs.

If anyone doubts that this is possible, we already have testimony that many orphans were burned with the garbage in a huge outdoor incinerator next to the hospital.

There must be an independent public inquiry. Complete forensic examinations of remains found in the old cemetery must be done to establish causes of death and to collect evidence of torture and abuse. Surviving orphans must be interviewed so their experiences are fully documented before any more of them die. Those responsible for crimes against the children must be prosecuted.

The Duplessis Orphans still carry the false “mentally ill” label on their shoulders today. But I discovered a few months ago that many survivors also are burdened with two other labels — “incurable” and “dangerous to society.”

Time is running out for these now elderly people to obtain justice for what they suffered and for having their rights violated. At this stage, I believe only a miracle can help these seniors — who once were innocent little children — to obtain real justice for their wasted lives. They were denied schooling, shut out from normal life, and are now dying off faster because of the past abuse.

These were normal kids, forced to live their childhoods in psychiatric institutions. They had to sleep in cells, sometimes straitjacketed, under terrible conditions. As a civilized society, we cannot close our eyes and continue to leave these horrific crimes against humanity to go unpunished.

If you have information regarding abuses described above, or data about any similar human rights violations, send it to editor@freedommag.org or to Freedom Magazine, 6331 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028.