Filings and Updates

The beginning…..

We are a group who have filed a class action suit against the Canadian Government, the Allan Memorial Hospital and McGill University and the CIA because of illegal brainwashing experiments conducted on our loved ones in the 1940’s through to the 1960s.  We filed a class action suit against the Attorney General of the United States, The Attorney General of Canada, the MUHC, McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital on January 24th, 2019.  To view the document please click here.

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On January 26, 2021, the Commission d’accès à l’information granted one of our class members’ appeal against the McGill University Health Centre and the administrative judge has ordered that access be given to her late father’s complete medical records. You can download this decision in English here and in French here.

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On September 26, 2022, the Plaintiff filed an appeal of the judgment with the Court of Appeal. There are many steps that must occur before the appeal is heard and it will therefore take many months before the file is ready and a date is even set. We will keep you updated as the file progresses.

The judgment on the United States’ motion to dismiss has been rendered – please see it here.

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Keep in mind that the MUHC may decide that certain portions of the record are confidential and could choose to limit what medical records they give you, as well as they may redact and blackline certain portions of the medical files. If this happens, the MUHC must give you the reasons as to why you are not obtaining the complete medical record and you have the right to challenge their decision before an administrative judge of the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec. This is a judgment from the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec (https://clg.org/pdf/1/0/6/1/Judgment-Granting-Access-to-Medical-Records-CAI-in-English.pdf) appealing and overturning the decision of the MUHC, thereby granting a family member access to a patient’s full and complete records.

In the course of discovery, the Representative Plaintiffs will no doubts request all of the medical records of all of the patients of the Allan Memorial Institute during the class period (1948 to 1964), and especially those patients that were “treated” by Dr. Cameron. It is too early to know whether the Defendants will contest the communication of all or even some of these medical records. It is also premature to predict what a judge will allow the Representative Plaintiffs to discover or not. But it is safe to assume that these medical records are relevant to the case and should be discoverable, but that certain safeguards will need to be put into place to respect patients’ privacy rights, as medical records are confidential and remain so, even after a patient has died.

Consequently, even if the Representative Plaintiffs are successful in obtaining all patient Class Members’ medical records, they will not be made public. However, we could anticipate some sort of process to allow estate executors and family members a way to prove their capacity and then permit them to obtain a copy of their loved one’s medical records.

Exact details will develop over the course of the litigation and will be subject to any Court decision on this matter.

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The class action was authorized against the Government of Canada, McGill University, and the Royal Victoria Hospital.
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The authorization hearing will take place on June 9-10, 2025.

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The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected our request for permission to appeal. The case is definitively dismissed against the U.S. government, but will continue against the other defendants.

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On Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 9:45 A.M., the Supreme Court of Canada will render its decision on whether or not it will grant leave to appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Quebec that granted the U.S. government immunity and dismissed the class action against that defendant only.  You can check the decision by clicking here.

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On December 1, 2023, we filed an Application for Permission to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. We are seeking to have the Supreme Court agree to hear our case and, if successful, allow us to proceed with the class action against the U.S. government and not allow them to claim immunity.

We will update this website when we hear from the Supreme Court of Canada as to whether or not they will hear our appeal.

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On October 2, 2023, the Court of Appeal rendered judgment dismissing the appeal. This means that the class action would continue as against the Canadian government, the Royal Victoria Hospital and McGill University, but no longer as against the United States. There is still a possibility of appealing this decision to the Supreme Court.  You can view the judgment here.