Thursday, July 5, 2007

US settles with Canadian CIA brainwashing survivor
MONTREAL -- A Montreal senior who survived Cold War-era brainwashing experiments picked up a cheque for compensation from the federal government on Tuesday. Janine Huard, 79, accepted an offer to end her class-action lawsuit against the federal government, which jointly funded the experiments with the Central Intelligence Agency.The terms of the settlement are confidential, but Huard says it will allow her to live out her days in peace, with some peace of mind. "I was really so exhausted from fighting for so many years,'' Huard told The Canadian Press in an interview." I don't think it's enough after having been hurt so much, and my kids and family. . . but at least justice has been done a little bit.''

Huard was a young mother of four suffering from post-partum depression when she checked herself into McGill's renowned Allen Memorial Institute in 1950.
On and off for the next 15 years, she was one of hundreds of patients of Dr. Ewan Cameron subjected to experimental treatments that included massive electroshock therapy, experimental pills and LSD.

The patients were induced into comas and exposed to repetitive messages for days on end to brainwash them.Cameron pioneered a technique called psychic driving, which he believed could erase harmful memories and rebuild psyches without psychiatric defect.The idea intrigued the CIA, which recruited him to experiment with mind control beginning in 1950.


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