Ontario man says he was tortured, given hallucinogenic drugs at mental-health centre

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
14,698
73
48
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....
__________________________________________________________________
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
 

Curious Cdn

Hall of Fame Member
Feb 22, 2015
37,070
6
36
Yep, and you'll drop four figures just getting in the front door.

In Canada it's free! Absolutely amazing.


I thought that all you had to do to go there was wave a golf club around yelling "Ally ally akbar", all the while wearing skin with some melanin in it.
 

Murphy

Executive Branch Member
Apr 12, 2013
8,181
0
36
Ontario
Oh, we're all a little jealous of her being given drugs and the relaxing hours spent in quiet contemplation. Her diagnosis, medications and other treatments were paid for by the government. Monies given to the Crown as a tithe for taxpayer needs and general expenditures.

She got all that por nada, or, as they say in the legal world, 'from freeloader funding'. Zut alors!

She hasn't lived until she's spent time with my MIL (Zod rest her soul) in her psychotic sunroom, or stripped naked and chained to four fat Russians. I'll take the chocolate ice cream and green Jell-O please. Veni, vidi, edi. Et in graissage complet.
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,197
113
Just think - if the Doctors cured crazy they would be out of a job
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
108,907
11,188
113
Low Earth Orbit
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].”
Reality check...

It wasn't a CIA program.

Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD On the Canadian Prairies – ActiveHistory.ca

Just think - if the Doctors cured crazy they would be out of a job

Staff did it too to understand the effects.
 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
41,030
43
48
Red Deer AB
Yep, and you'll drop four figures just getting in the front door.

In Canada it's free! Absolutely amazing.
As usual you get what you pay for. Canada certainly experiments on people, locked up is perfect but there are others who are on the disposable people list that focuses on the ones under 5 and over 65. They even have their preferred diseases that kill so they escape punishment. Why do you think none of these cases ever get somebody from the medical community or legal community fired or hung till dead.

NunatsiaqOnline 2014-04-03: NEWS: Squalid, drug-ridden Nunavut jail unsafe, likely illegal, corrections watchdog says

Iqaluit’s notorious Baffin Correctional Centre — unsafe, unsanitary and insecure — violates international human rights standards and should be shut down, Canada’s prison watchdog agency found in a blistering report the Nunavut government suppressed for nearly a year.
“The current state of disrepair and crowding are nothing short of appalling…,” said the 34-page report, written by Canada’s Office of the Correctional Investigator.
On top of that, the agency found illegal drugs and contraband flow easily into BCC and that correctional officers can’t stop it.
The flourishing drug and contraband trade inside BCC is so bad, it damages carving and cultural programs aimed at rehabilitating inmates, the report said.

That’s partly due to BCC’s poor design, which makes it difficult for staff to directly observe inmates, a problem that’s compounded by overcrowding.
“With so many inmates, the 10 narrow hallways and multiple rooms prevent appropriate supervision of inmates and limit positive interactions between staff and inmates,” the report said.
And the report found the GN’s human rights and corrections policy weaknesses include the following, some of which are Charter of Rights violations:
• a corrections policy that is “silent on the unique needs and situation of Inuit people;”
• the use of straitjackets to confine prisoners for up to 24 hours;
• the use of restraint chairs and “chemical restraints” without consent;
• no provisions for meeting the religious and cultural needs of inmates;
• a poor grievance system for prisoners;
• a policy under which remand prisoners sign away their human rights in waivers;
• confusing and inconsistent policies on the use of force; and,
• outdated acts and regulations that are 25 years old.
The national corrections watchdog issued the report April 23, 2013. That followed a site visit by Jean-Frédéric Boulais, the agency’s manager of investigations, between March 12 and March 14, 2013.
But as early as Sept. 17, 2012, Howard Saper, the correctional investigator, was quoted by the Ottawa-based iPolitics news website as saying that BCC is “one of the most troubled correctional centres I’ve ever visited.”
And the report reveals that on Dec. 4, 2012, Saper’s office told Nunavut corrections officials the facility should be closed, based on the Nunavut government’s own assessments.




So the blame seems to be put on the inmates rather than the prison staff and, more properly, the owners of the prison.
 
Last edited:

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,197
113
they do get it in the US, its just usually combined with forgetfullness commands