Max Harrold, CanWest News Service
MONTREAL — A Montreal woman who underwent years of debilitating brainwashing techniques in the 1950s and 1960s has ended her case against the federal government, accepting an undisclosed amount of money.
Janine Huard, 79, accepted a cheque for an amount that “will make her very comfortable,” her lawyer, Alan Stein, said Wednesday.
Stein said part of his client’s agreement was that she not disclose the amount.
The settlement opens the door for other former patients of Huard’s doctor at the time, the former director of McGill University’s Allan Memorial Institute, Ewen Cameron, to try and get compensation for their treatment by him despite the long delay.
The treatment included electroshock therapy and sleeping while wearing earphones that played repeated messages. The experiments were conducted by the Canadian government and the CIA.
“It’s a landmark decision,” Stein said, adding that he knows of about 10 former patients and 20 relatives of former patients who may now be part of a class-action suit he is preparing.
Huard entered the Allan Memorial Institute in 1957 suffering postpartum depression after the birth of her second child. Her newborn had become ill and Huard was having trouble sleeping.
But instead of helping her, Cameron used her as a guinea pig to carry out experimental brainwashing techniques that he mistakenly believed could treat depression.
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