MONTREAL — Quebec's Superior Court has authorized a class-action lawsuit over infamous CIA-linked brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital, allowing the case to move toward trial.
The Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University and the Canadian government are being sued for their alleged roles in the so-called Montreal Experiments carried out by Dr. Ewen Cameron between 1948 and 1964.
The lawsuit alleges the federal government funded psychiatric treatments that were part of the CIA's MK-ULTRA program of covert mind control at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute, which is affiliated with the Royal Victoria and McGill. Cameron's treatments severely damaged the bodies and minds of patients, the lawsuit says, and included experimental sedative drugs, rounds of electroshocks and sleep deprivation.
"Depatterning," as the doctor's treatments were called, had "a goal of erasing a patient's thoughts whereby patients were immobilized, rendered intellectually helpless and prevented from using their defences," Justice Dominique Poulin wrote in her decision, dated Thursday, green-lighting the class action.
That process was followed by "repatterning," during which patients were subjected "to continuously repeated audio message on a looped tape, often concurrently with muscular paralytic and sedating drugs to subdue them." The messages began as negative — often comments that the patients had expressed about themselves, such as "you are selfish." Patients were then forced to listen to positive messages, such as "you are lovable." The lawsuit says these messages were repeated between 250,000 to 500,000 times.
"The Applicants submit that the Montreal Experiments were conducted without the informed consent of the patients, or even without their knowledge," the ruling reads.
The suit goes on to say that the applicants "blame the government of Canada for the faults of its representatives who would have negligently funded the Montreal Experiments. They also blame McGill University and Royal Victoria Hospital for enabling the Montreal Experiments."
One of the lead plaintiffs, Lana Ponting, now in her 80s, was a teenager when she was under the care of Cameron. The other lead plaintiff, Julie Tanny, has told The Canadian Press as many as 300 families could be eligible to join the class action.
Tanny's father had been sent to the Allan Institute in 1957 for facial pain and spent two 30-day stints of chemically induced sleep in the hospital, allegedly with a tape recorder under his pillow.
"Most of his life vanished; he was never the same man he started off as," Tanny said.
The initial application for class action was filed in January 2019. Jeffrey Orenstein, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said, Thursday's decision "is definitely a step in the right direction for sure."
The McGill University Health Centre, which includes the Royal Victoria Hospital, declined to comment Thursday as the matter is before the courts. A spokeswoman for Health Canada said in an email that the federal government is "reviewing the court's findings to determine next steps."
McGill University did not respond to requests seeking comment.
The original class action included the CIA, but the Canadian have ruled that the U.S. government is immune from lawsuits in Canada.
Orenstein said the case will take some time to make it to trial. Many documents have been destroyed — some on purpose, but others according to protocol at various institutions. The main witness — Cameron — died in 1967.
"Discovery will be complex and it may take some time to look for documents, find the right people to ask questions to," Orenstein said.
"But you know, we're determined to bring it to trial."
Class members haven't included the amount of money they are seeking from the defendants, saying that sum will be determined later.
While the class action was authorized for compensatory damages, applicants will not be able to claim punitive damages under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms as the faults took place before the Charter came into force.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2025.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
