Could be a big ol' can of real or imagined worms. Did what they think happen, actually happen? Was treatment really treatment given in good faith or by some sadistic invididual with bias?
man oh man....
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Danny Joanisse still wakes up in the middle night, in a cold sweat, with the terrifying thought of being shackled in a small windowless room.
“There’s been times when I get flashes in my head and it’s very scary,” Joanisse said. “I wake up at night in sweats from bad f—ing dreams.”
The 61-year-old who currently resides in Niagara Falls, Ont., says he was just 15 when he arrived at the Oak Ridge division of the Penetang Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont.
Oak Ridge was home to dangerous offenders who had been charged with crimes such as rape, murder and aggravated assault and had been found not guilty by reason of insanity. Many patients suffered from mental illness including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Joanisse arrived at the maximum-security mental health facility after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for attempted murder. He would spend more than three decades in and out of the facility.
Now an Ontario judge has ruled in a lawsuit, in which Joanisse is a plaintiff, that medical doctors at Oak Ridge tortured and conducted unethical treatments on patients for a period of 17 years between 1966 and 1983. The lawsuit was launched in 2000 by former residents of the facility.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell wrote in his June 1 ruling that doctors used treatments that included “solitary confinement, group confinement in close quarters; sensory deprivation, physical force and constraint, discipline and punishment, the administration of hallucinogens and delirium-producing drugs, including [LSD], and brainwashing techniques developed by the [CIA].”
Perell says programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.
The three programs were administered at Oak Ridge in part by Dr. Elliott Thompson Barker and Dr. Gary Maier, the two psychiatrists named as defendants in the suit, the ruling said.
Global News attempted to reach the lawyers representing Barker and Maier but did not receive a response. A spokeswoman for the Ontario attorney general said that ministry counsel are reviewing the decision.
“As this decision is subject to an appeal period, it would be inappropriate to comment,” Emilie Smith said in an email.
The Capsule Program
According to Perrell, one program involved forcibly giving patients hallucinogenic drugs — including LSD, scopolamine and dexedrine — in order to break down the patients’ defence mechanisms and force them to confront their behaviour.
Joanisse said he was part of an initiative called the “Capsule Program” in which he was chained to five other people and stripped naked in a windowless room that was continuously lit for days at a time.
“I was in what they called a psychotic sunroom,” he said and described how he was tied up with a “turkey strap” with his ankles cuffed together and attached to his waist.
He said he was fed liquid food through a straw from a hole in the wall
“You want to talk about physical pain? And then they gave me a shot of scopolamine which made me hallucinate and made things worse,” Joanisse said.
The rest:
Ontario man says he was tortured, given hallucinogenic drugs at mental-health centre | Globalnews.ca
man oh man....
__________________________________________________________________
Danny Joanisse still wakes up in the middle night, in a cold sweat, with the terrifying thought of being shackled in a small windowless room.
“There’s been times when I get flashes in my head and it’s very scary,” Joanisse said. “I wake up at night in sweats from bad f—ing dreams.”
The 61-year-old who currently resides in Niagara Falls, Ont., says he was just 15 when he arrived at the Oak Ridge division of the Penetang Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont.
Oak Ridge was home to dangerous offenders who had been charged with crimes such as rape, murder and aggravated assault and had been found not guilty by reason of insanity. Many patients suffered from mental illness including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Joanisse arrived at the maximum-security mental health facility after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for attempted murder. He would spend more than three decades in and out of the facility.
Now an Ontario judge has ruled in a lawsuit, in which Joanisse is a plaintiff, that medical doctors at Oak Ridge tortured and conducted unethical treatments on patients for a period of 17 years between 1966 and 1983. The lawsuit was launched in 2000 by former residents of the facility.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell wrote in his June 1 ruling that doctors used treatments that included “solitary confinement, group confinement in close quarters; sensory deprivation, physical force and constraint, discipline and punishment, the administration of hallucinogens and delirium-producing drugs, including [LSD], and brainwashing techniques developed by the [CIA].”
Perell says programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.
The three programs were administered at Oak Ridge in part by Dr. Elliott Thompson Barker and Dr. Gary Maier, the two psychiatrists named as defendants in the suit, the ruling said.
Global News attempted to reach the lawyers representing Barker and Maier but did not receive a response. A spokeswoman for the Ontario attorney general said that ministry counsel are reviewing the decision.
“As this decision is subject to an appeal period, it would be inappropriate to comment,” Emilie Smith said in an email.
The Capsule Program
According to Perrell, one program involved forcibly giving patients hallucinogenic drugs — including LSD, scopolamine and dexedrine — in order to break down the patients’ defence mechanisms and force them to confront their behaviour.
Joanisse said he was part of an initiative called the “Capsule Program” in which he was chained to five other people and stripped naked in a windowless room that was continuously lit for days at a time.
“I was in what they called a psychotic sunroom,” he said and described how he was tied up with a “turkey strap” with his ankles cuffed together and attached to his waist.
He said he was fed liquid food through a straw from a hole in the wall
“You want to talk about physical pain? And then they gave me a shot of scopolamine which made me hallucinate and made things worse,” Joanisse said.
The rest:
Ontario man says he was tortured, given hallucinogenic drugs at mental-health centre | Globalnews.ca