Paes ee ee BRITISH COLUMBIA The clothing styles were neatly reversed as members of the Children’s Choir of Moscow Radio, many of them wearing Pepsi T-shirts, came to the Ukrainian Hall Saturday to be welcomed by several cultural groups from the Association of United Canadians — many of them dressed in Ukrainian national costume. The 24-member Soviet choral and dance group part of a much larger choir of 700, played to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd at the hall as they wound up a week in Vancouver, most of it spent performing at Expo. Saturday's reception, which also included sightseeing in the city, was organized by the Canada-USSR Friendship Society. Victims of CIA experiments deserve full compensation The brainwashing experiments on Cana- dian citizens carried on in Canada by a foreign intelligence agency with the active assistance of the Canadian government in the 1950s and 1960s constitutes one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian his- tory. The story is not. yet complete — the whole truth is not yet known and the vic- tims are still seeking justice. Here are some of the known facts: @ The experiments were carried on at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal under the direction of Dr. Ewen Cameron, one of Canada’s leading psychiatrists at the time; @ The experiments were funded by a CIA front organization calling itself the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, an innocent sounding name con- cealing a sinister purpose. They were part of a larger covert operation known as MK Ultra; ‘ @ At least 53 Canadians, most of them women, were the victims. They were used as guinea pigs without their consent or know- ledge. The experiments carried out at the Mont- real institute reveal a veritable gothic house of horrors. They included massive doses of electric shock treatment twice daily for up to a month, injections with a South Ameri- can arrow poison known as “curare,” weeks of drugged sleep, patients bom- barded with taped messages up to half a million times in an effort to develop new beliefs and behavior patterns, interrogation for long periods of time, forcible intake of hallucinatory drugs. Patients were placed in sealed rooms where they were deprived of all sensory impulse and rendered unable to smell, their eyes were blindfolded, their ears blocked and their hands and feet padded. One woman was kept in such a box for 35 days. One of the victims was the wife of David Orlikow, NDP MP for Winnipeg North, who suffered irreparable damage — dam- age from eight years of treatment involving LSD. A Canadian psychiatrist has des- cribed the experiments as employing “con- centration camp techniques,” and said they ~ were very similar to experiments carried out by the Nazis on the inmates of concentra- tion camps. How many have died as a result of these experiments is not known, since the names of the victims have been kept secret. How- 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 4, 1986 ever, the names of 13 survivors are known. Their health and minds are wrecked, their lives ruined. Nine of the survivors have been endea- voring since 1980 to sue the U.S. govern- ment and the CIA. The case has been before the U.S. courts for over five years now, stonewalled by the Americans. The CIA has offered an out-of-court settlement of $25,000 each, which the victims consider an insult considering the wrecked lives and tor- tures they suffered. Only recently it was revealed that the Canadian government was also involved in these experiments and helped to finance them through the Department of Health and Defence Research Board. Reports were regularly given to, and discussed with, the CIA on the progress of the experiments. Why did the CIA, in co-operation with - Canadian defence and other officials, carry Harry Rankin © out these bizarre, cruel and inhuman exper- iments on Canadians who were referred to the Institute for treatment of normal health problems? Information available and pub- lished in the media indicates that those responsible considered them a form of “pol- itical warfare, a means of combatting Communism,” of “selling democracy,” of implanting “disinformation” in the minds of the patients. What they were after, apparently, was a method to change people’s politics by drugs and torture: “reforming” radicals, Com- munists, socialists and others they consi- dered dangerous. It is revealing that their discussions also included “(Communist infil- tration of trade unions.” Apparently, even trade union activists were to be targeted if the experiments proved to be successful. The Tory government in Ottawa has been under heavy pressure to do something to help the victims who survived get some justice in the form of compensation. To counter this demand John Crosbie commis- sioned a study of the issue by a former Conservative member of Parliament. The report, published earlier this month, is a complete whitewash of Canadian govern- ment complicity in this affair and was so condemned, by Liberals and New Demo- crats in Parliament, and by the victims. The victims and their lawyers were not even con- sulted by the person drawing up the report. It draws this conclusion: “Neither legally nor morally should we impose today’s standards in the matter of consent and choice of treatment upon the action of those who in good faith conducted themselves in accordance with the laws and ethics of the day.” That is indeed a shocking statement. Is the report suggesting that the tortures inflicted on innocent and unsuspecting peo- ple were in accord with the “ethics of the day” in the 1950s and 1960s and that they were carried out in “good faith”? There is no evidence that Canadians, who had jut gone through a war to rid the world of people who practised such tortures would ever condone them being carried on in Can- ada. The experiments of the 1950s and 1960s were the fruits of the McCarthyism of the period and its paranoid obsession with Communism. It was the same type of men- tality that is today responsible for the prepa- ration of Star Wars and the horror of chemical warfare. The only way to make sure that this will never happen again in Canada is to expose and air the whole thing. The Tory govern- ment in Ottawa seems more interested in a cover up. A government that’s willing to serve Canada on the platter of free trade to the U.S., that hasn’t even the guts to retal- iate in any meaningful way against prohibi- tive duties on Canadian shingles and shakes, can hardly be expected to voluntar- ily speak out about the mistreatment of 53 Canadians who were considered expend- able on both sides of the border. It’s obvious that if we want anything done we’ll have to step up the pressure on Ottawa. In the meantime the victims deserve the support of all fair-minded Canadians in their efforts to seek compensation for what they went through — a compensation that should be shared by the Canadian govern- ment. ‘constituency office of federal Energy” agi as South Africa day June 16 is “Free South Africa Dé thanks to a motion from Vancouvel council. fot Council moved to make the declan rf commemorating the 10th annivesaty ° fs Soweto protests at the urging of the A” Apartheid Network May 27. The network has planned a demons tion on that day at the Scotia Tow# Vancouver to call for total sanctions 42 the racist regime governing South Aine In council, the vote was unanimov’ 4 the:declaration marking to the day the of protests in the Black township 0°. outskirts of Johannesburg. The protest which more than 600 students weté ved by South African police, is considé os berichmark date, along with the infam “Sharpeville Massacre” of 1960, 1 struggle to end the racist system kn apartheid. she In a letter to council, Larry Kuehn? wiht Anti-Apartheid Network noted that, os unresponsiveness of the South Afri . regime to internal pressures places at@F siblity on the international comm is contribute towards ending the violen@ South Africa. the “Meaningful action can be taken 4 a local government level, as you ae strated last year when you decided t0 ap investing public funds in companies financial institutions doing busines South Africa,” he urged. 4. dott The network suggested council ; o two “draft motions,” one declaring «net South Africa day on June 16, and the 3 a detailed one imposing at the civic lev “i boycott of South African goods, 07.4 representatives and sports and cultural The motion also suggested naming 4 eft street after a noted apartheid oppor such as imprisoned African Nation rf) gress leader Nelson Mandela or outsp? oi Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu. (Thé of Seattle has named the street-on whit South African consulate is located “Né Mandela Street.”) ‘of Council voted to defer the second mors for two weeks pending possible actions es Ottawa, as demanded by opposition ve af in Parliament following the South iat | air strike against three neighboring last week. A ys! The mayor and aldermen unanitn gh adopted the first motion, which noted", the leaders of the majority of South’ 10 cans “have called for the economic, any matic, and cultural isolation of the Africa, which call has been endorsed Oye United Nations, the Commonwealth ia World Council of Churches, among international and humanitarian O18? tions.” The motion declared June 16 “a 9% solidarity with the people suffering 2” io apartheid” and committed the att {0 “encourage the citizens of Vancouye honor the sanctions against South Af fe and provide assistance to the poor oppressed under apartheid.” ‘opt The network, a coalition of trade unt religious groups and community organ tions, will hold a commemorative rall June 16 at the Scotia Bank Tower, 6% he and Seymour St. The building hous ter Pat Carney, who is being pr sulphur exports to South Africa peti” national petroleum corporation, Canada. od Speakers include United Church Moor ator Rev. Robert Smith, AnglicaD “4s bishop Douglas Hambidge, and spent from the B.C. Federation of Labor 4% Haida Nation. The rally begins at 5 P’ to by ita ES eng ed ae oonhttw Tw P— i 7s ae a ae ee y om \