Lana Ponting was only 16 years old when she was hospitalized at Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute on the campus of McGill University. Ponting said she was admitted by her parents to the psychiatric hospital in 1958 after she ran away from home several times. “I had behaviour problems like any normal teenager and I guess they thought putting me into the Allan would help me and help them,” Ponting told CTV News Winnipeg. The now 84-year-old, who lives in Winnipeg, spent a month under the care of psychiatrist Ewen Cameron. “I’ve been sick all my life because of what they did to me,” Ponting said. “And sometimes I wake up in the night screaming.” Unknowingly, Ponting was part of the infamous MK-ULTRA program, a Cold War era CIA project partially funded by the Canadian government. Ponting said she was forced to take drugs like LSD and subjected to a series of mind control and brainwashing experiments. “We never [gave] consent. They just did what they wanted to us—we were guinea pigs.” In late July, a Quebec Superior Court judge authorized a class-action lawsuit against McGill University, Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital, and the Government of Canada. Ponting is a representative plaintiff in the suit, which alleges hundreds of patients like her were subjected to experiments without their consent or knowledge. Ponting said Ottawa needs to apologize for the harm done and the lawsuit is seeking compensation. “I don’t look at myself as a hero,” Ponting explained. “I look at myself as an 84-year-old woman who will talk. I will not shut up for anyone.” McGill University and the federal government didn’t respond to requests seeking comment on the lawsuit.
