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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Misericorde Hospital


I have been researching and writing about the dark side of psychiatry particularly in relation to secret Cold War LSD experiments on children in Montreal at McGill and elsewhere across Canada.

I have a photo of Doctors Ewen Cameron and and Heinz Lehmann standing with a group of other doctors outside the Misericorde hospital in Montreal in 1959. This was a hospital for. unwed mothers and also an orphanage. At the time Lehmann was directing the research institute of the Allan Memorial. What are two Mc Gill psychiatrists doing in a group photo on the steps of this hospital? What legitimate reason would they have to be there?

I am guessing the secret reason is they are setting up an agreement to get children for use in experiments. We know there were orphans living in a sealed off wing of the Allan in those years.

Cameron and Lehmann were key figures in what appears to have been a eugenics program operating out of McGill. Lehmann had trained in Nazi Germany at precisely the universities where the infamous T4 eugenics program was developed. He came to Quebec in 1937 and was soon placed in charge of a major psychiatric hospital known as a place where patients were zombified with drugs and ECT.

There was also a link with New York and Massachusetts hospitals and military bases like Plattsburgh AF base known to have used trafficked orphans from Quebec in classified experiments. Some of this information comes from surviving orphans.

Cameron worked with Dr Nolan D C Lewis from the NY Psychiatric Institute where a Nazi doctor Franz Kalman had run a eugenics program since the 1930s. Lewis worked with Cameron giving LSD to children in the 1950s at McGill.

They needed a lot of children in those days and Quebec was a baby factory, with the highest birth rate in the western world.

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CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT LAUNCHED FOR SURVIVING DUPLESSIS ORPHANS:

Please read and share this important news: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/duplessis-orphans-class-action-1.4537218

52 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting.
I was born at the Misericorde hostpital in 1963, and spent the first six months of my life there before being adopted.
Much later, in the 80's, i worked at the MNI, and found out then about the infamous Allen Memorial reasearch.
I hope against hope there was no connection.I'll bet the english medical world, then as now, was a small one. Just about everyone knew everyone else.
On the other hand, many of the orphans at the Misericorde were deemed to be mentally 'deficient'.
Interesting.

Ann Diamond Mother of Darkness said...

Dear C.
That is extremely interesting... that you were born at Misericorde and later worked at the MNI. And from googling your name, I see you now live in Toronto and like Leonard Cohen. (I hope against hope there is no connection, although there might be.)


You were lucky to have been adopted. I have met others who were born in Misericorde, and one or two who were labelled mentally deficient, but in talking to them it seems more likely they were guinea pigs in some great experiment which has been quite successfully covered up. And yes, they all knew one another, and maybe this is one reason the cover-up succeeded.

Thank you for leaving this comment, and sorry I only found it today.

mbcampion said...

Hello -
I was born at Misericorde Hospital in December, 1961. I have been searching for my birth mother for a while now, only to find out she died in 1997. When I started researching where I was born, I was appalled and shocked by the practices of the Misericorde back then... I was one of the lucky ones, not being deemed mentally deficient and eventually adopted into the U.S. in 1963.

Fearless Cooking said...

My mother had a daughter at Misericorde in December 1963. I am still looking for her.

Fearless Cooking said...
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Unknown said...

MY MOTHER was born there in 1954... her last name is Marcoux. Any link to it...

Dean said...

Hi
I was born here in 1968 and am just now searching my birth parents. This is the first Ive heard of this and would be interested to learn more. Thank you for puting this out for all to see.
Dean

Anonymous said...

I was born at Misericorde Hospital in 1957 and adopted to Lieselotte Burkhardt and Roger Joseph Zotique Chartrand. I was told my birth name was Laura.
I am in search of my birth parents and siblings.
I have been told that many adotees information were changed/modified.
Is there anyone who can help me get adoption records. My parents say there are none.
charlotte.heidi@yahoo.com

Unknown said...

My mother (born in 1931)was adopted out of the orphanage at Mc Gill University by a pediatric med student named Chester Mead in 1933. I am trying to find out more about it. I have heard from relatives that it was a place where medical experiments/shots were tried out on the orphans. Does anyone know more about this?
Thank You,
Eve

mbcampion said...

Comment for Kyle (Eve) -
Hi - try looking up Dupleiss orphans and that should give you some more information about what experiments were conducted at Misericorde.....

Unknown said...

I was born in Misericorde Dieu Aug 21, 1952 to the name of Gisele Beaulieu. I am looking for my mother and any sibling. My mom was born in approximately 1931.

Ann Diamond Mother of Darkness said...

I just found these recent comments. Unfortunately, I can't help locate birth parents. You could try contacting the Duplessis orphans' committee in Montreal -- I will try to find their address but i think you can search for them on the internet. They have an archive.

Rod Vienneau has written a book about the Duplessis orphans -- his wife, Clarina Duguay, is one of them. However, it's in French, as is a lot of the information and archival material.

I hope to post more about this soon--

Ann Diamond Mother of Darkness said...

I highly recommend Rod Vienneau's book on the Duplessis Orphans, available for download at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40153255/COLLUSION-THE-DARK-HISTORY-OF-THE-DUPLESSIS-ORPHANS-A-CANADIAN-GENOCIDE-CRIMES-COMMITTED-AT-THE-HANDS-OF-THE-CATHOLIC-CHURCH-AND-STATE

Anonymous said...

mysavior
I have some updated information from my first post on March 9, 2011
I have received information on my birth mother after almost 1 year from an agency in Montreal. My DOB is 10-25-57, my birth name was Marie, Laura, Rolande. I was born and adopted at Misericorde. She was 20, brown hair and eyes, was a hatter prior to pregnancy. Father had blond hair brown eyes, did not know of pregancy or birth and he was a laborer. I assume my last name was Rolande. I have requested a reunion and hope she is still alive. I have not been given names of either.

Treewizard2013 said...

I have been researching my family history and found that my great Aunt died at this hospital in 1975 at the age of 84.

Was this a convalescence hosptial by then?

Anonymous said...

I was born at the Misericorde Hostpital in 1957. I was born on March 4, 1957. I was baptised on March 6. I was baptised Joseph along with so many others. My baptismal paper list me as, mother as unknown, father unknown.

Pierre said...

Hello , My name is Pierre Joseph Hervieux . I was born on May 21 , 1968 . My unwed mother had me there at the nunnery / orphanage . My mother is French Canadian and my father is Black so she gave me up for adoption at birth . I stayed at the orphanage until I was 4 at which point my aunt convinced my natural mother to take me home . I have memories of the place . I could not yet speak though I remember sitting in a cafeteria type room at a long table with other children to eat . No one spoke the nuns stood over and tended to portioning out our food .It was a cold unloving type of vibe . I also remember a playground in the courtyard that was fenced in but on the main road . I longed to be on the other side of the fence . It used to be that I could get my birth certificate directly at the nun's office . I am thankful not to have suffered abuse and that they where there otherwise I would have been aborted like my younger brother .

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Unknown said...

I was born at the misericourd in 1952. Never got adopted,still I'm Montreal,I'm on welfare,that's why I'm having problems searching for answers

Unknown said...

I was born at the misericourd in 1952. Never got adopted,still I'm Montreal,I'm on welfare,that's why I'm having problems searching for answers

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

I was born at the misericourd in 1952. Never got adopted,still I'm Montreal,I'm on welfare,that's why I'm having problems searching for answers

Unknown said...
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Tsanta64 said...

i was born at this hospital in 1964.Spent 6-9 months while my birth parents visited on weekends. Finally they were told bring me home or i was to be put up for adoption.One day they went to visit and i was gone.Was put into foster care in Gaspe until 1966 when my U.S. citizen parents adopted me.I searched for and found my birth parents back in 1991. I have been searching for who my foster parents might be but can't get any information.

Ann Diamond Mother of Darkness said...

Thank you all for your comments on this page. They tell a story of their own about the suffering caused to at least two generations of birth parents and children. I hope that all of you can find answers, and wherever possible, your lost loved ones.

I don't really know what has become of Misericorde Hospital since the days when it was filled with abandoned babies and caretaking nuns. I'll try to look into it again when I get to Montreal in a month's time.

Another site to investigate is the notorious Creche d'Youville on Cote de Liesse, where torture allegedly took place. One survivor, Rick Piva, who now lives in Hawaii, has written a memoir describing what he went through there as a very small child.

Below, on this blog, you can also read an interview with Duplessis Orphan Silvio Day, who I believe grew up at Mont Providence, another orphanage on Gouin Boulevard in Cartierville, before he was placed at Hopital St Jean de Dieu, where real horrors took place during this very dark period in Quebec history.



Ann Diamond Mother of Darkness said...

Rick Piva's memoir at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-First-Family-Adoptions-Portant/dp/1497419948

Map of Creche d'Youville (and a strange story in the Comments)
http://wikimapia.org/6333857/Former-Youville-Orphanage-Ancienne-Cr%C3%A8che-D-Youville

Tsanta64 said...

I think Misericorde Hospital has been turned into a home for the aged.

France Frechette said...

Hello,
Was born in st-Lambert private hospital, with 24 hrs to live. Then apparently transferred to Misericorde. Was told stayed for 4 months but only stayed 13 days as per hospital records Only dad had access to baby not mother who claims my hospital stay costed $4,000.00 in notary fees...1
Need the truth.
Thanks

Anonymous said...

What year were you born.I think approx. pre 1960.there were many tortures/ experiments inflicted on the supposed "infirm" children born at the hospital.I can't get any other info other than that.I am still trying to get info on who my foster parents were at the time but have always hit a dead end.My feeling is i was not placed into a foster family type situation as we might know of today but rather another institution .

Mariam said...
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Unknown said...

My name is Alix-Marie Aldred. My memere is Yvette Guimond. Then it was Yvette Levesque. She gave birth to a son on May 21st, 1957. 21 Mai 1975 at 6:30am. Her sons given name was Leonidas Parent. If anyone can help us find him, please email me at alix.marie@hotmail.com or my mother, Maxime, at maxald@telus.net

Thank you.

Ann Diamond Mother of Darkness said...

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FOR SURVIVING DUPLESSIS ORPHANS !!!!

RECOURS COLLECTIF POUR LES ORPHELINS DE DUPLESSIS !!!!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/duplessis-orphans-class-action-1.4537218


Now 62 years old, Marc Boudreau has come to accept that he will likely never find peace, or be able to live a normal life, after a childhood spent in institutions.

Many days are a struggle for Boudreau, who still finds it difficult to talk about his past.

"It was a stolen childhood, because we were children and we were innocent," he said. "We were defenceless."

In a motion to be authorized to launch a class action lawsuit, Boudreau alleges that his mother handed him over to a Catholic-run organization as an infant. After some time in foster care, Boudreau spent most of his early years in orphanages and psychiatric hospitals in Quebec.

In the motion, he claims that physical and sexual abuse in those institutions left him with long-term scars — both physical and emotional — and that prevented him from forming stable relationships or finding steady work.

Unknown said...

My father was also born there in 1931.

CraigG said...

I was born at the miséricorde hospital in October of 1962 (2 months premature) I was a twin (my fraternal twin died after birth.

birdgirl said...

I was born at the Misericorde Hospital in Montreal in 1948 and fortunately adopted at one month of age. Since the disclosure laws changed as of June 15,2018, I have applied for the name of my birth mother and should be getting the call soon. My birth father's name was not in the file. I've read about the experiments on the orphans and feel very lucky to have been adopted and not subjected to the horrors that those poor people had to suffer. I've also read about what the poor unwed mothers had to suffer at the hands of the nuns.

mbcampion said...

I have a question for birdgirl - I was unaware of the disclosure laws that you indicate that changed in 2018. Is there an application to fill out to get the full name of my birth mother? I was born at Misericorde in Montreal in 1961 and was also adopted at 15 months of age.

Genevieve said...

Looking for birthparents
Baby girl born February 7th 1969

Starshine1 ~ Anita said...

I was born at Hopital La Misericorde in Montreal in 1953. I spent only 3 months there but in that period of time I contracted Chicken Pox, I had sores all over my body and my adoptive mother told me that the milk they gave me was blue. I guess it'd been watered down...My heart goes out to any orphans that did stay there during those dark times. My maternal mother told me that she was not allowed to hold me and they changed her name the moment she registered and was not treated in a kind way. That is so sad that a religious order would JUDGE young women like this. So sad.

Mico said...

Hello, I am male and I was born at La Misericorde in Montreal on May 12, 1946. I believe that I was adopted within 6 months. Years ago I sent for my non identifying information and found out that my biological mother was 23. That would make her 96 today if she is still alive. I too was not aware of the new laws changed in 2018 and I too would like to know if there is an application to find my birth mother.I have been living in the USA since the age of 7.

Tsanta64 said...

You need contact the agency you were adopted through.They will give you the proper forms to fill out.

Mico said...

Tsanta64, Thanks very much for the reply.

Roxana Elena Roban said...

Hello! Can you upload this http://www.scribd.com/doc/40153255/COLLUSION-THE-DARK-HISTORY-OF-THE-DUPLESSIS-ORPHANS-A-CANADIAN-GENOCIDE-CRIMES-COMMITTED-AT-THE-HANDS-OF-THE-CATHOLIC-CHURCH-AND-STATE somewhere else and post it here? It's been deleted from scribd.

Claude Côté said...

I was born August 18, 1966 at the Miséricorde hospital and I was there for nearly 2 years before being adopted by an Italian family in Montreal. Until 2 years ago, I had no idea of the atrocities attached to this hospital. After reading several articles on the same topic, I consider myself very lucky for having been there toward the end of these horror stories. How people can treat others inhumanly is beyond me.

If anyone reads this and knows of a woman who would have been born around 1947 and at 19 years old gave up a baby boy born August of 1966, I'm looking for her. I was told my real name is "Claude Côté" if that helps any. My contact email is yulymx2015@gmail.com. Thank you for reading this.

Roxana Elena Roban said...

Hello! I would love get in touch with you and discuss about some issues. If you also want to get in touch my email is: alt001171@gmail.com

I currently live in Dublin, Ireland. I don't have a facebook account.
I am still interested in
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40153255/COLLUSION-THE-DARK-HISTORY-OF-THE-DUPLESSIS-ORPHANS-A-CANADIAN-GENOCIDE-CRIMES-COMMITTED-AT-THE-HANDS-OF-THE-CATHOLIC-CHURCH-AND-STATE

Take care

France Frechette said...

How may I help or may you help?

France Frechette said...

How may I help or may you help?

Lea said...

Born march 31st 1957 à La Misericorde , my mother gave me for adoption on april 6th ,it took that long to convince her it seem. At my age after searching for many years I am now convinced that my mother gave a false name ...So I really would like to know my origins...Sadly will never be able to thank my birth mother and reassure her that I got excellent adoptive family and was loved and raised well.

Sally said...

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why the Misericordia closed in 1969- and what happened to the babies there when the institution closed.