OTTAWA -- Thirty years ago, Velma Orlikow left her home in Winnipeg for Montreal. Her doctor told her she would make better progress at a clinic there in the treatment of her depression.
Today, her bouts of depression, although sporadic, are severe. The clinic in Montreal, she is alleging in a lawsuit, not only did not cure her; it permanently scarred her.
Velma Orlikow claims that she was given the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) 14 times over a period of 2 years without her knowledge. In addition, she was subjected to 'psychic driving,' a type of brainwashing in which tapes are played repeatedly for periods of four to six hours.
The experiments, she claims, were carried out at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute but they were funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Velma Orlikow and eight other Canadians are suing the U.S. government for $9 million. The suit has dragged on for five years and, so far, they have received nothing, not even an apology, from the CIA.
In their testimony, the nine victims give hideous accounts of their ordeals in Dr. Ewen Cameron's clinic. They all claim that, as a result of the experiments conducted between 1953 and 1963, they have never been able to put their lives back together.
Jean-Charles Page of Montreal was suffering from depression, alcoholism and violent tendencies when he entered Cameron's clinic in 1959. In his suit against the CIA, he alleges that he was given a variety of drugs, put to sleep for 36 consecutive days and subjected to 30 days of psychic driving.
'It was like a bad horror movie,' he said. 'I would wake up and there would be five doctors at the end of my bed, chanting 'Kill him, kill him.' They were trying to frighten me to test my reaction.'
Robert Logie of Vancouver alleges that he was given shock treatment, was forced to take LSD and other drugs and spent 23 days in induced sleep. Now 47, Logie lives on a disability pension. He suffers from chronic anxiety and depression and has not slept more than three hours a night since 1956.
A similar story is recounted by Jeanine Huard. She claims that during her stay at the clinic she was subjected to shock therapy and to continuous tapes which, among other messages, told her she was a failure as a mother.
The nine are being represented by Joseph Rauh, a noted American civil liberties lawyer. 'The CIA performance in Canada (during this period) is an incredible invasion of Canadian sovereignty,' he said recently.
The CIA, however, contends that its responsibility is only incidental since the brainwashing program was going on before -- and continued after -- the CIA's involvement.
The agency has offered the three men and six women an out-of-court settlement of $25,000 each. They are suing for damages of $1 million each, pointing to the precedent set by the family of Frank Olson, who received $750,000 several years ago. He was the American who committed suicide after being used as a CIA guinea pig in LSD experiments.
The claimants suffered a setback in late 1985 when a U.S. judge refused to allow two CIA officials, stationed in Ottawa, to be questioned in a pre-trial fact-finding session.
The unresolved case has become a minor but bitter irritant in American-Canadian relations and a lasting source of anti-American resentment. Although the issue has been raised with Secretary of State George Shultz, Canada has only received a vague promise that the matter will be looked into.
This lack of attention, interpreted as arrogance by many critics here, is coupled with rising skepticism at the quiescent approach of the Mulroney government. In response, an internal investigation has begun here to see if Canadian officials of that period should bear some responsibility for the experiments.
Some of the public outcry in Canada is affecting U.S. policymakers. Senator Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, recently said he was 'aghast at the refusal of the U.S. government to resolve this matter with the Canadian victims of the CIA actions. Instead of seeking a settlement on some reasonable basis, our government and the CIA have placed every conceivable roadblock in the path of these victims.'
