Winnipeg woman brainwashed in Montreal psychiatric

hospital hopes new year brings new compensation 

Lana Ponting hopes Montreal class action lawsuit will be certified this year

Kristin Annable​ · CBC News · Posted: Jan 02, 2020 5:00 AM CT | Last Updated: January 2

Lana Ponting was 16 when she was sent to the Allen Memorial Institute, where she was given LSD
and methamphetamine, medical records say. (Gary Soliak/CBC)

Lana Ponting was just 16 when she was given LSD and methamphetamine in a series
of brainwashing experiments by a world-renowned psychiatrist in 1958.

"I didn't even know half the time who I was," Ponting said. "It was almost like a jail. It
was horrible."

The 78-year-old Winnipegger spent a month at McGill University's Allan Memorial

Institute in Montreal under the care of Dr. Ewen Cameron.
Medical records say Ponting was fed a cocktail of drugs that also included barbiturates
and anti-psychotics used to "explore" her. She was tied up and fed the drugs while
doctors observed her behaviour and reactions.

What were called "depatterning experiments" later became an international scandal

when it was revealed Cameron was covertly funded by the CIA as part of their MKUltra
mind-control program.

● 'She went away, hoping to get better': Family remembers Winnipeg woman
put through CIA-funded brainwashing
● FIFTH ESTATE​Trudeau government gag order in CIA brainwashing case
silences victims, lawyer says

But it wasn't just the CIA who funded Cameron. Canada's federal government provided
Cameron with more than $500,000 between 1950 and 1965 — $4 million in today's
dollars.

Ponting has never been financially compensated for her experience and 62 years later,
she wants an apology from Ottawa.

"And I do want compensation because I think mentally and physically, I suffered a lot,"
she said.

Class action seeks compensation

Ponting hopes compensation will come if a Montreal-based class-action application is

certified this year.
The application was filed in January 2019 in Quebec's Superior Court on behalf of
anyone who underwent Cameron's "depatterning treatment" at the institute between
1948 and 1964.

The lawsuit also would include anyone whose family member or dependant underwent
depatterning at the institute.

Lawyers on the case believe there could be hundreds of potential class members.

Dr. Ewen Cameron was a respected psychiatrist and the first director of the Allan Memorial Institute,
the psychiatric facility at McGill University where brainwashing experiments took place from 1950 to
1965. (CBC)

Cameron believed in using sleep deprivation, electroshock treatments and

hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD to "depattern" the mind and wipe out mental illness.
However, it was later reported that his methods had lasting impacts on patients,
sometimes erasing his patient's memories.

● Federal government quietly compensates daughter of brainwashing

experiments victim
● Group affected by CIA brainwashing experiments wants public apology,
compensation from government

Ponting was living in Montreal in 1958, when a judge referred her to the institute after
her father took her to juvenile court.

She had run away a few too many times and he didn't know what to do with her.

Medical records describe her as "stubborn and antagonistic" and said her parents
disapproved of her friends.

"I guess I was having a hard time with my parents. A rebellious teenager, or whatever,"
Ponting said.

'You can't do this'

When she arrived at the hospital, she remembers resisting when they tried to feed her
the drugs. They used straps on her arms and ankles to hold her on a table while they
injected the drugs.

"I guess I took offense to that for some reason. I was yelling. I was screaming, 'Leave
me alone. You can't do this,' and it was horrible. It was just horrible," she said.

Ponting used Freedom of Information laws to get copies of her medical records. They
detail the month she was in the hospital and include notes from Cameron.
An undated photo shows Lana Ponting as a child, before she went to the Allan Memorial Institute.
(Submitted by Lana Ponting)

In a May 10 letter written after her release from the institute, Cameron told her new
doctor what happened after she was given LSD and nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

"She had become quite tense and extremely violent when given the nitrous oxide,
throwing herself half out of bed and starting to scream," he wrote.

"She came out of her confused state, calling for her father, and continued calling and
crying for him sometime afterward."

Ponting can't remember the two years after she left the institute.

"There are two years of my life, for some reason, I couldn't bring the memories of that
back," she said.
Compensation in the '90s

In 1992, about 77 of Cameron's former patients were given $100,000 by the federal
government. Hundreds more who applied for the compensation were rejected, because
they needed to have proper medical records to prove they were tortured to a certain
extent, and they needed to apply by a specific date.

Ponting said she never applied for the compensation because she wasn't aware it was
being offered.

● Montreal woman seeks compensation in '50s brainwashing case

● Montrealer collects compensation for CIA brainwashing

The named defendants in the latest class action application are the attorney general of
Canada, the United States attorney general, McGill University Health Centre and the
Royal Victoria Hospital.

A statement from the federal government cited the 1980s inquiry into Cameron, which
concluded Canada did not hold any legal liability for the treatments.

It said the compensation paid out in 1992 was done for "humanitarian reasons." Since
then, ​several other out-of-court​ settlements have been reached with other patients.

A spokesperson for the McGill University Health Centre and the Royal Victoria Hospital
said the courts already have determined Cameron conducted his research at the
institute, but Cameron was not, by law, its employee.
"It's important to note that Dr. Cameron's research could not be carried out today at our
institution. Since the '60s, the ethical and regulatory frameworks have evolved
considerably," said the statement from the McGill University Health Centre.

A request for comment from the U.S. attorney general was not returned.