Survivors of MK-Ultra brainwashing experiments want judge to approve class-action lawsuit

A lawyer representing survivors of the MK-Ultra brainwashing experiments argued for a judge to approve a class-action lawsuit.

It was called the MK Ultra project, meant to experiment on mind control using patients as guinea pigs. Lana Jean Ponting remembers her parents having her hospitalized at the Allan Memorial Institute because she was a troublesome teen who often ran away.

“I was drugged up so bad I can’t remember half of what they did to me,” explains the woman, who is about to turn 84. The abuse wasn’t just medical.

“I bore a son when I was at the Allan Memorial and I got pregnant without ever knowing who the father was.”

Ponting says she suffered from the debilitating effects of the treatments all her life.

The experiments were sponsored by the CIA, funded by the Canadian government, and handled by a McGill University independent researcher named Donald Ewen Cameron between the 1940s and 1960s.

It’s reported the medical team used electroshocks and experimental drugs on patients, including LSD. Ponting and several other survivors and their families were in court Monday as their lawyer is trying to get authorization for a class action lawsuit filed in 2019.

It’s the first step before the case can move ahead.

“I think there is no question no one has ever taken responsibility. No one has ever apologized. There was some modest compensation in 1992 without any admission of liability,” said lawyer Jeff Orenstein, who’s taking on the case on behalf of the consumer law group.

He said that in the early 1990s, some survivors were offered settlements without anyone taking responsibility for what happened. The courts already prevented the group from suing the U.S. government.

The CIA successfully argued the courts here have no jurisdiction. The other parties, such as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Canadian government, argue they can’t be sued because the plaintiffs waited too long.

“There are many psychological reasons of blockages that just don’t allow people to take action,” Orenstein said, likening it to women who wait decades to denounce sexual aggressors because of fear and stigma.

Julie Tanny remembers how her father, Charles Tanny, was admitted over a neurological pain issue in his face. The doctors thought he had psychiatric issues and began treating him. His daughter says he came out with permanent mental health damages from which he never recovered.

“He didn’t know me or my two siblings. He remembered my mother, but he didn’t remember he had children or that he had a business or anything. And he was very detached. That never changed. He never came back to the person he was before,” Tanny said.

It could take a few months for the court to decide if the class action can be authorized.

If the case moves forward, the plaintiffs may finally have a shot at getting some closure that has eluded them for seven decades.