JMJ
July 26,2013
Ste. Anne and St. Joachim Day
The late Malcolm Muggeridge said “ We learned nothing from WWII except to admire the enemy.” He was referring to the state intrusion into peoples’ lives. C.S.Lewis,,famous for the Narnia series, wrote THE HIDEOUS STRENGTH in 1948. He exposed the commitment to control people through a scientific elite. The date is significant. After the War there was a move to experiment on people. But it didn’t begin then.
In the 1930's there was a massive Eugenics movement. A major proponent was Tommy Douglas, whose Master Thesis at McMaster’s University was called The Subnormal Family. It advocated compulsory sterilisation , institutionalising males and females with
“ wrong genes”, immoral practices, and sloppy housekeeping. When he came to power in 1944 he made himself Minister of Health . He had a Communist from John Hopkins University write a Health Report. It reiterated Douglas’ solutions with some specifics.
It said “ The ill health of the Indians are of a special concern because they mix freely with the whites.” Tommy Douglas accepted the report in its entirety and said “ Great!”
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Williams were missionaries in the Battlefords area. Alice Williams
told me that Mr. Peter Wutunee of Red Pheasant had told them how Tommy Douglas had denied treatment of syphilus on one reserve so that the long term effects of the disease could be studied while other former soldiers were treated to stop the disease.
Jim drove Tommy Douglas around the reserves as a favour to a brother- in- law. Douglas was opposed to natives getting the vote but he had to get on the bandwagon because John Diefenbaker, the Conservative Prime Minister had made sure that the natives on the reserve could vote as soon as he had the power to do so, Jim was so disgusted with the racist remarks made by Douglas to him as they toured the area he refused to have anything to do with Douglas,or the CCF / NDP again .
Meanwhile Tommy Douglas’ Mental Health Programme including hugh colony like mental hospitals at Battlefords and Weyburn.
One real case: A prosperous farmer was taken to court in Imperial . He was confined to one month in Battleford “ for observation”. The man was an intelligent moral person who had invented useful farm technology. His resources ,against the wishes of his wife, were liguidated and given to the Minister of Fainace coffers. Some of their own money was doled out to the family for survival. A person would come checking to see how his money was spent by the wife.and their large family. Soon their money was gone because a Summerfeld as Public Trustee had stolen theirs and other people’s money.
The man now “ patient” ran away but was hunted down and brought back. He said he had done so because they were experimenting on inmates and he wanted to tell people. The report, still available, said “ his prognosis is uncertain” That was the code words for it is unlikely that he will leave. There were no more treatment reports but indication of doctors from the Soviet Union who had observed him. He died at the age of 42. The “ hospital” reported conflicting dates of his death, and stated no reason for the death although an autopsy was done. When his wife wrote and askedd how had he died, she received a letter “ that he died peacefully in his sleep.” The obvious conclusion was he was murdered in the Institute which could have easily been done by shock treatments because he knew too much and would have been believed
Similar things were done in Weyburn especially to the Ukrainians who wanted to tell people what was really happening in the Soviet Union.
The Sleep Room is a movie about the true story of the CIA experimenting on allegedly mentally ill people in Quebec.
Tommy Douglas and Roy Romanow talked of Saskatchewan many times as a Sociological Experiment. Douglas thought possibly the Indians could be useful because their culture included aspects of collective activity. It is of no surprise to me that the government was arranging or allowing experiments of some native children receiving biscuits and a vitamin and others not. These biscuits and vitamins were still available in Northern Light’s Southend School when I taught there in 1969. It is all part of the post WWII mentality of some that people could be used for Statist experimentation. Yes the natives did suffer but so did many others. I have not heard of the British, Ukrainian, Scots et c et c packing up on Canada although many were fellow sufferers especially in Socialist Saskatchewan in the Douglas era.
Isn’t it about time that Native Leadership quit using the past to play political games at taxpayer expense today ?. When is there going to be useful outrage at eugenics imposed on natives today? There is plenty of evidence right now of women being pushed into compulory abortion and sterilisation using some of the tactics of Communist China. There is plenty of evidence of elders and others being euthanised. Why are particularly harmful batches of flu shots found in the North? Why are vaccines becoming so harmful to babies while parents are coerced into compliance? Native leaders in Saskatchewan .and in Canada could use their energy and resources to oppose today’s eugenics instead of plans of how to bankrupt and break up Canada. They would have many non- Indian allies and would save the lives of fellow Canadians born and unborn. Gay
